I spent a day with the Cornivii Druid Grove, an OBOD grove based in the Worcestershire area. I had been invited to their Autumn Equinox (Alban Elfed) ceremony by the leader of my local Cherwell Druids grove Briar.
As I travelled with Briar, and she was participating in an initiation ceremony for a member, I had an hour or so to kill before I could join the main group for the ceremony. The group leader, Keith, invited me to take a stroll through his sumptuous gardens, which surround his garden centre business. Of course, I accepted is kind offer.
The trail was a series of branching paths which took me around his house and gardens in a trail filled with a mixture of surprising late autumnal colour, and a ghoulish wonderland of amusing and sometimes downright creepy Halloween puppetry and features.
On the route I entered a “fairy village” through a round wooden gateway (cf. as magical an experience as going through Playschool’s round window). Instantly I felt I was in a liminal space, and my dowsing rods, which had been instructed to take me to a place I could “work” at, swivelled into a birch tree which stood in the middle of the path at this point.
I double-checked the reading. I was to work at a birch tree? But, that was the tree of beginning. Surely I was way beyond any insights that such a tree could afford me now? Such arrogance I had to put aside, for indeed I was to work with this tree.
I connected easily, and soon the trinkling waters, the dappled sunlight, and the liminal space had worked it wonders and I was away with the fairies. As I stood by the birch tree I felt tendrils of energy emerge from my assemblage point, my sacral chakra. These were connections, and they travelled out towards every member of the group whom I had met that morning for the first time. I was kindling kinship, as I had been instructed to do on one of my last outings many years ago (2016) before all this nonsense stopped for almost a decade. I may have forgotten what work I needed to do, but something was still keeping tabs on my spiritual progress!
I felt a smooth transition back to normal awareness, and I stood pondering the moment. Birch? New beginnings? What did it mean? It meant that I was travelling back around the spiral. Although I had progressed from birch to yew and on to oak at one time, now I was back at the beginning again. Except, this time I was bringing all of the wisdom, experience and knowledge from that previous cycle and taking it higher up the spiral of learning into a new progression, back around the spiral at a higher level.
I had to face the fact, I was re-learning a lot of this stuff now. My ego had to get used to the fact that this was a new beginning. I was a sort of novice again – fresh to new learning, new experiences. Except this time I was more open to the company of others and the connections and energies that they would bring to that work. This Hedge Druid was opening out in a way he had never done before on this path.
Further up the trail, after encountering mock graves, spooky clowns and a garden of spiders and webs, I emerged out into open pastureland. At the top of the hill the owner had created two very special features – a stone circle and a turf maze. Oddly, it was the maze I was drawn to. Having walked them before I knew what I needed to do.
I got into a meditative state, and asked if I could enter. Feeling the familiar tug, I processed. As I began the walk, at various turning points in the maze I hummed. First the hum was low, matching a frequency I recognised as being related to my root chakra. At selected turns the frequency would be increased a notch. I walked the maze humming notes which would tune my chakras in turn. By the time I reached the central point I was whining like a slipping fan belt, and my head was buzzing with the high note. I felt great. Ready for the social engagement which was to come.
What an engagement it was! I met a dozen wonderful druidry practitioners from this south-west area, and I thought they were all amazing. I was so welcomed, and felt completely comfortable within their presence. In no small part that was due to Keith. His home is my perfect image of a contented druid’s abode, and being a gardener his outdoor space was incredible. Everything was in perfect harmony.
The ceremony went well. I an still not a fan of organised ceremony. I guess that is my hedge druid learning, or maybe it is my essence. But I appreciate being welcomed to participate. And I will be back for the next one, if only to be amongst these wonderful kindred spirits.
