Tag: gwalchmai

Samhain 2012 – The Hawk and The Dove

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Ancient Sites, Hedge Druidry, Natural Magick, Quests, Ritual, Trees, Wheel of the Year

Finally I have got around to writing up my Samhain experiences. It’s only the back end of November, and this occurred at the beginning of October! One aspect of this year’s work has been the incredible amount of material we have had to deal with. Only a fraction of it appears on this blog. This year we will end up with 200 draft posts that didn’t get finished. But now – back to the tale at hand.

Yew Know What To Do

We start, as usual, at the Llangernyw Yew tree. 4000 years of dendrochronology pulsing through its dark boughs. On the way to the village of Llangernyw (yew) I was heading towards a rainbow which coincidentally seemed to land on the village as I approached. Coincidence, of course, because this light phenomenon is linked to one’s position relative to the light refraction.

The churchyard was quiet. This gave me the space to follow my intuition. I walked down to the graveyard and sat on the wooden bench where I had once met a shade. There was nothing there now, but I felt I needed to be here first before moving back up to the tree. Perhaps I needed to be grounded before approaching the tree, or energetically harmonised? Soon I was back at the top of the churchyard standing on the edges of the yew tree’s canopy. I asked for entry…waited…and it was granted.

Llangernyw Church with its magnificent yew tree

For some reason I had brought some new crystals with me. I felt I should place them along one of the yew’s branches. In the early morning sunlight they glowed with their respective colours and I left them to do whatever it was they were doing. Sometimes such acts have no intention on my part. This is where trust comes into the equation. I felt around for the best place to sit and found that it was not in my usual place. As I settled in I noticed that I was sitting in the place where I got a particularly sparkly view of the sunlight through the branches. That was lucky, eh? I began to drift off…therefore before I went completely I asked the yew tree to help me discover my quest for the next part of the year… and then my mind went blank as the sunlight danced in my eyes and the spark of wonder that drives my spiritual path began to surface.

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Ding Dong – Bran calling!

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Ancient Sites, Other Entities, Wheel of the Year

On a path such as mine I have a few rules – “reciprocal investments” you might call them – tacit agreements. The idea is that if I “tune in” to the Flow of the Universe in search of inspiration, then I must be prepared to act upon its motivations. In other words, if I ask … Read More “Ding Dong – Bran calling!” »

Arthurian Archetypes of the Cross

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Hedge Druidry, Magick, Natural Magick
As a druid I work with mental imagery to facilitate connections to sources of intelligence and wisdom beyond the confines of my own psyche. The format of those mental images, the focal points if you like, are fairly arbitrary for the most part. Although we have created some cultural thought-forms (many of which have energy and sentience all of their own due to that energetic input) I believe that the best use of these mental focal points is for them to be a visual gateway into The Otherworld. The cultural images we use are a sort of universal pass to get you into a frame of mind that allows a connection to one source or another of Otherworld information. This Otherworld is a realm of ideas and knowing that is beyond the ordinary five-sense reality that we spend most of our time in.
 
Druid Archetypes
I want to define a specific phrase to contain the ideas I am trying to express here. Let me call them “druidic archetypes”. You may call them Gods or The Goddess. You may call them any host of ‘mythical’ names such as from the Arthurian tales, or The Mabinogion. Whatever source you choose to derive your druidic archetypes from (you may even have created or found your own) let me define them here as “druidic archetypes” as a shorthand. I may refer to them as “sources” too, if generalising.
 
Archetypical druid (c) Chris Young/PA
 
I found some of these druidic archetypes useful at the time when I opened up my DNA to changes related to healing. During that process I employed Arthurian archetypes in order to work with energies that I discovered were available at particular sacred sites. During that process I was able to adopt their energies, utilise them, and gain a great deal of insight as part of that assimilation process. However, time moves on, and after that process had completed I pretty much forgot about all but the main archetypes I was using such as Merlin, for example. To be honest, I didn’t really know their extent, or how to use them as part of any kind of ritualistic or seasonal basis.
 
The Cross
As druids we tend to shy away from The Cross, given its associations, yet as Julian Cope always says we need to reclaim this icon. It’s far more useful for us than it is for ‘them’. It had a far older history than the current religious paradigm of the western world. For me, I have found that The Cross is a framework upon which to place the four main division points of the year. In this context The Cross also provides me with a means to place the druidic archetypes against these four annual divisions, and to link the two concepts together. Of course, it also allows for elemental associations, and for cardinal positions too. Such a useful framework!
 
Rediscovering the archetypes
Something prompted me to re-discover these sources. A task this year involving Merlin startled me into a recognition that these archetypes weren’t a one-off symbol that I was using – they were becoming part of the way I worked with the land and the elements. So I began to explore what benefits they could bring me. Certainly I will never be worshipping any of them as gods, but as psychological archetypes could it be possible to externalize their energy forms such that I could learn something about my own spiritual development by aligning myself with one of the Arthurian figures at a specific time of the year or for specific purposes?

Venus Transit and The Hawk Lines

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Venus Transit and The Hawk Lines
Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Experiment, Gwalchmai, Hedge Druidry

It’s June. We have to go out. We can’t help ourselves. So, even though the weather was looking ropey, we went out. Kal and I winged our merry way along the A55 westward towards Anglesey, the sacred druidic isle. My objective was simple – I had been instructed to learn the skill of “seeing like a … Read More “Venus Transit and The Hawk Lines” »

Seeing Like The Hawk

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Seeing Like The Hawk
Gawain, Gwalchmai, Hedge Druidry, Spirits

Mid-June 2012 There is a curious spirality to the path we wander when we follow the Flow of the Universe. As many observant and wise people have pointed out Creation seems to be based upon the spiral, so it should come as no surprise to followers of this path when subjects come cycling around to meet … Read More “Seeing Like The Hawk” »

2011 – Summary of the Year by Gwas

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2011 – Summary of the Year by Gwas
Hedge Druidry

Well, I see that Kal got his summary out first. Still, “if you can’t beat them…” Generally, what type of year it has been? Dis-jointed, slower than last year’s breakneck speed, measured, with lots of deep synchronicities. When I come to review the year I realise that I still made lots of progress on the various tasks … Read More “2011 – Summary of the Year by Gwas” »

Remote dreaming at Lud’s Church

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Remote dreaming at Lud’s Church
Ancient Sites, Hedge Druidry, Natural Magick, Spirits

Often Kal and I time our visits to meet the requirements of whether the ‘sacred date’ (of the Celtic Year) comes closest to a Full Moon or a New Moon. One such visit coincided with a New Moon on July 30th. This coincided with the Lammas (or Lughnasagh) Festival. We decided that a visit to … Read More “Remote dreaming at Lud’s Church” »