death eating – The Hedge Druid

Death is coming

March 3, 2015 Chris 1 Comment

Hedge Druidry

A druid is asked to work with both light and darkness. The concepts of druidry seem to me to be centred around the concept of balance. All too often the concepts of life and death are separated out into their extremities. I like to think of existence as a sphere across whose surface we move from the reflected light of life through to the shadowed dark side of death. Often clouds of darkness move over our existence, or spots of intense aliveness light it up. This particular experience made me think about a darker aspect: death.

I was thinking about how much of this blog deals with a balance of light and dark. I have skills that I used with the darker aspects just as much as I work with the light. I do healing, but it could as easily be used to harm. I do death eating, yet I use it to ground spirits for their benefit. I clean and clear sites, but that is a destruction as much as a creation. I energise people and places for their benefit, but I could as easily taint. The differentiator is only intention. I have almost exclusively chosen to work with good intention.

My wife is becoming more psychically aware. She’s doing a course on energy healing, and in a moment of inspiration she needed to find a way to get some of her questions answered. Speaking with her I said “Well you know, really it’s all about you…”. She stopped the sentence before I could go on. “‘All about yew’….’ she echoed. “Which yew tree?” she asked, “The one you visit?“. She meant The Llangernyw Yew. I knew this was the right place to take her for inspiration, so we decided to go that afternoon.

Llangernyw Yew tree - Feb 15 (4) — The Llangernyw Yew in full splendour

Imbolc 2015 P2 – Death Eating with St Michael

February 11, 2015January 26, 2016 Chris 2 Comments

Hedge Druidry

After Arthur’s Well (or close to it) we were heading out to Anglesey. I set the satellite navigation in order to get me back to some major roads that I recognised. On the way in that morning I had wanted to visit near to Llandeiniolen but we had searched in vain for it so I had given up in frustration. We had gone to visit Arthur’s Well anyway. Now, on the way back out – where did we arrive? At the damned church of course!! And I use the word ‘damned’ with intent, because no sooner had we stopped to admire the huge ancient yew trees than I got a dread feeling.

Yews at St.Michael’s

The old church at Llanddeiniolen seems to have changed its name, perhaps to disguise itself? Perhaps it is seeking to prevent visitors from finding its ancient yew trees? I have a fix on it now, though. The church is moments away from the nearby B4366 on a small back road heading to Waun. It used to be called “St Deiniol’s” but now seems to be calling itself “St.Michael’s”. It would turn out that the new name was highly appropriate to the work I was about to do.

We had been here before and so we knew there were some ancient yew trees, huge and hollowing. I had a feeling that there was some other reason I was being ‘directed’ to visit here, though. Intuition is a wonderful sense, but it doesn’t always deliver the information like a map. Sometimes the information is more like a painting.

Death Eating at Llangernyw

March 1, 2014February 7, 2014 Gwas 3 Comments

This post is out of sync with the other posts. It should have been posted before Imbolc, but our experiences on that day took precedence. So, here it is at the start of March, over a month since it happened! Hey – that’s the way it goes. Sometimes we don’t have enough stuff to post, sometimes posts are bountiful! This post will be talking about a visit to the Llangernyw Yew tree, where I discovered something interesting about “death eating” – the process of absorbing death energies.

The Grave of the Last Sin Eater in England

Previously at this yew tree I had been given the name “Death Eater“. I considered it like a Scout Badge – another tool in the plethora of skills and experiences which make up the modern druid. I had read Ross Heaven‘s books about the Sin Eater – an old and now lost profession which bears a striking resemblance to the Death Eater methodology that I had been shown, except that it had taken on a symbolic ritual involving the consumption of food. I don’t know whether practitioners still retained the concept of soul absorption.

As the Wikipedia article says:

“Not to be confused with the ’80s pop singer Sinitta“

A Hearty Meal

It was unusual to be in the churchyard in daylight. We normally visit at twilight or in the dark. Not for any nefarious purposes, just because that’s the way it pans out. Today we had daylight, and so I felt Like a normal visitor to the yew tree! I settled into a power centre next to one fo the lower branches, a familiar place which had been once again pointed out by the dowsing rods as the best position for any work today.

Soon I was in tune with the tree, and the images and messages began to come to me as I asked whether there was anything for me to learn here today. There was, and I felt the exciting ripple of new information from outside of my own thought processes, and recognised that the yew was communicating with me. What was it saying to me today?

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: