lammas – The Hedge Druid

Lammas 2013 – The Faery Feast

August 27, 2013August 25, 2013 Gwas No Comments

Faery, Hedge Druidry, Ritual, Trees, Wheel of the Year

In the culmination of the Lammas work I describe a long-awaited meeting between the Lord of the Underworld – Gwyn Ap Nudd – and little old me.

Now, I have some caveats about this post which I will point out straight away. The location was given to me by a devotee of this site along with a request not to divulge the location of the site. I will honour that promise entirely – so you will need to use your imagination for this one because there will be no photos or definitive descriptions of the place – just general references.

I began that morning by collecting some fresh wild flowers. I know people disagree with the concept – I know. However, I don’t go around doing it for no reason, or simply to decorate my house. These flowers were a one-off offering that I had been specifically asked to collect as part of the ritual. Yes, I could have refused on principle, but we are ‘sacrificing’ vegetables all the time for things Like Harvest Festival celebrations. This was the same sort of enterprise – a dedication of the finest ‘fruits’ of the land to create a banquet as an offering to a major spirit form. I felt it was necessary in this case. Please forgive me if it causes you distress. And take care where you walk when you go out in the countryside. Those blades of grass don’t repair themselves, you know?

Next we had to find the right place. I had a set of printed instructions that had been left deliberately vague. Well, lets’ say there was margin for error anyway. Once you knew where you were going you realised the instructions were dead on, but you need to read between the lines. Luckily I had my Druid Glasses on. Both Kal and I walked to the spot we believed was the right one. Actually, I had been intending to go alone, but it worked out that the best time was when Kal was there too. So be it.

As soon as I got the end of the known instructions I knew the rest of the way myself. I could feel the draw, the magnetic pull of the place. Yes, this was the right spot indeed – I knew that even from the outside. A suitable entrance needed to be found, and duly I was led there by forces unseen and sympathetic to my cause. I was still carrying a large bounty of flowers, most now wilting in the harsh heat we were having this Lammas day. I got them inside the sacred site unscathed. Now what?

Lammas 2013 – Lunasa, Lunacy and Re-balancing

August 23, 2013August 21, 2013 Gwas No Comments

Faery, Wheel of the Year

August has been a busy month – socially, and in terms of holidays and druidry. So at the end of August begins our stories about Lammas, Lughnasah, or Lunasa – whichever you prefer. I used to call it Lammas, but I’m coming around to the ideas of using Lunasa, as it contains a more direct reference to the inspiration for the day.

Lammas (or Lunasa, Lughnasagh – The Assembly of Lugh) was about a meeting with a faery. It seems so obvious now, but the signs were constructed in a long draw-out jigsaw, and the final pieces only came together as I write this post. Sometimes the obvious is not obvious until it makes itself so. I discovered that I would be having this meeting, this assembly, at the Summer Solstice on Glastonbury Tor. I think even then, because it was Glastonbury Tor, I knew which faery I would be meeting – Gwyn Ap Nudd. He is also known as Lugh (Light), and Herne (The Hunter).

Certainly all the indications were such – it had to be someone powerful, I needed to go through an elaborate ritual of gathering the fruits of the summer, and I would need to provide a gift of these fruits at a banquet where I would meet him. A few words of advice had come through from Kal’s spiritual mentor Cailleach too. She had advised that I “must find the banquet“. Indeed, I would have to gather the flowers of the land on the day of the festival from all the places I visited that day. The flowers did have to be found. The place and the time had also to be right, astronomically and in terms of the time of the year. After a chance encounter on this blog I knew the place. The time and star positions were going to be Lammas and in view of the constellation Orion – The Hunter. Gwyn, of course, is also The Hunter, hunting the Scorpio constellation across the sky, so I’m told.

As a courtesy to my “informant” I will not be discussing the place where the meeting would take place, but I will describe what happened. However, that’s a few posts away. For now, there were preparations to be made, and the first was a suggestion of Kal’s – Bryn Celli Ddu.

The site is usually very well maintained, energetically speaking, but this day we both independently discovered that some balancing work could be done. When we conferred about it we decided to go about it in our own ways, but agreed that it needed doing. Only a marginal tinkering, this time, just to being the site into harmony with our energies, and vice versa.

I dowsed for the place to do this work from and found a place to the upper side of the entrance to the mound. On the opposite side Kal was already sat so I asked him if that was “his spot” to which he responded that it was indeed. Of all the places we could have chosen, we chose opposite sides of the entrance. I sent female energy around the outside of the site and dowsed later that it blended with the existing female flow.

Kal, it turns out, had been sending male energy the other way round. Without any preparation we found ourselves working harmoniously in a balanced way until the site dowsed as being perfectly in harmony between male and female, and that this was consistent with the energies of the moment (positions of moon, sun and stars at this time of the year). The female outer ring and male inner ring around the mound were moving freely, and flowing to a design that we had dowsed on several occasions now (see our site maps of Wales for a clue to that formation’s general layout).

2012 – Summary of the Year by Gwas

December 27, 2012December 28, 2012 Gwas No Comments

Ancient Sites

My summary of the year could easily take up several posts, but I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to highlight the many important distinct elements that have taken place this year, and then provide links to the posts that illustrate these elements. On the whole it has been an amazingly packed, dense, active year. … Read More “2012 – Summary of the Year by Gwas” »

Lammas 2012 – The Quest to Free Merlin

September 1, 2012 Gwas 1 Comment

Ancient Sites, Wheel of the Year

In part two of my Lammas adventures for this year Kal and I were fooling around at the top of the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall in East Wales. I had just settled in after my healing experience at the re-union point of three streams, and now I was gazing down the valley from the top of the waterfall, listening to the sound of the plummeting water, when Kal skipped in front of me to knock me out of my reverie. He had a look in his eye that meant that something foolish was in his head, I was right.

Pistyll Rhaeadr

I saw Kal moving towards the very edge of the waterfall’s head were the rushing water began its first descent over the edge before soon dropping down into the deep gorge below. I was nervous and curious – what was he doing? When I asked him he told me that he was testing himself – he had been challenged to make the leap as a “leap of faith”. Well, I wouldn’t stop him, but I would certainly make sure I was around in case it all went wrong. I was now on high alert, but also a small smile had begun to form on my face – this could be quite amusing, I thought. I would watch this, and if necessary record the outcome. Someone else who was visiting the waterfall who had a big camera had similar ideas, and began to focus his lens on proceeding as Kal swayed back and forth on his launch spot, contemplating the leap of four feet across the churning waters. One slip…..!

My mind moved to the Fool card in the Tarot deck. Notice in the original Rider Waite card the Fool’s proximity to water and that he’s working at heights, and also that he’s drawn out the Sun to witness his folly!

Kal swayed for the fifteenth time. “Jump! I shouted encouragingly. “Jump if you’re going to!”. Could this be considered aiding and abetting a criminal act of stupidity? Kal took the urge and made a half-hearted leap to the other side. His right foot landed but his weight was uneven. He lurched towards the safer side of the falls, but then tried to regain his balance so as not to fall into the deep waters. Too late! He had lost his balance and his right foot dropped into the deep pool of the river. Shortly to be followed by his left foot. Then his arm. Then…well, he was practically swimming! I heard the quiet continuous click of a camera’s shutter as each calamitous step was recorded for posterity.

Read More “Lammas 2012 – The Quest to Free Merlin” »

Lammas 2012 – Healing History

August 27, 2012August 30, 2012 Gwas 5 Comments

Ancient Sites, Experiment, Glyphs and Wards, Quests, Wheel of the Year

The day began with the promise of something beautiful to emerge from the nascent silver-grey clouds, whose meagre partings would later reveal the full glory of the late summer sun. Intrepid as always, and eager like beagles penned until their exuberance breaks free, Kal and I rushed for the mutually agreed starting point for most of our special journeys into the magical adventures we live through in Wales. We would start at the Llangernyw Yew and see what visions it might divulge to us today – August 1st – the festival of Lammas in the pagan calendars. At the beginning of the adventure the day felt pregnant with possibilities, and it would happen that I would have a wonderful and inspiring revelation, learn a new magickal technique for self-healing the traumas of the past, and find my way onto the next part of my spiritual path. Let the tale begin!

It was mere seconds before Nature herself was showing me the signs and symbols that have accompanied so many of my special days around the Wheel of the Year. As soon as I began to drive off from home I heard first then saw a buzzard flying low over the car and circling around a nearby field. Of course – all such days should start with the aerial vision from the hawk! The hawk would also re-appear at the end of the day as we returned to the car to drive home again. Almost like a closing narrator to the proceedings, having the final word.

As well as all these coincidental and contrived moments, I was aware that we would be spending the day in the company of the invisible Grain Moon – the August full moon that was burgeoning with its astral emanations on this day and those that surrounded it. It felt like everything was gathering in order to give us the best chance of having a truly meaningful and magickal experience – which is exactly what happened when we followed our intuition and our guides.

The Safety of the Yew Tree

Llangernyw - Lammas 2012 (2) — Llangernyw Yew in full splendour

Although yews have many poisonous parts (berries and bark to name but two) there is something that I consider to be very safe about being around this old tree. The Llangernyw Yew is so old that it baffles your sense of history to even consider when it sprouted. Let’s just say that when this tree was beginning its life our ancestors were discovering the wonders of mixing Copper with Zinc to produce a new metal for the first time.

As Kal wandered around the graveyard like a lost ghost (he always has a purpose, really) I sat beneath the tree’s canopy and felt for the right place to sit. I found my place and found that I could connect to the tree very quickly. Moon? Festival Day? Noon? My energy? More experienced? Previous encounters? I don’t know what the magic combination was, but within seconds I was asking for and receiving answers from the bowels of the great yew….

“Have I completed the last quest yet?” – “It is a continuous quest until the end of the year.”. Straight question, straight answer.
“Am I ready for a quest for this part of the year?” – “You have enough energy, yes.”
“Can you tell me the nature of this quest, please?” – “I can’t. You need to go to the Portal Stones.” (situated at the rear of the church). “OK – thanks!”

As I came out of my tree trance I met with wandering Kal. He told me what he had learned so far, and asked what I had got. Nothing yet, really. I’m off to see the Portal Stones. Kal pointed out that his attempts to make the sun appear through the slate-grey Welsh cloud cover was happening as we spoke. I looked up in amazement to see a fiery spotlight appear in the thick grey cloudscape. Impossible, I roared! Kal smiled. “Impossible is nothing!” he seemed to suggest.

Llangernyw - Lammas 2012 (5) — Impossible sun appearance again – Lammas 2012

Quest for the Third Eye

August 20, 2012August 20, 2012 Gwas 3 Comments

Hedge Druidry, Quests, Tarot, Wheel of the Year

My quest for the previous part of the Wheel of the Year (Solstice to Lammas) was to open my Third Eye. This was quite a hefty challenge, I felt, and Kal had said to me several times (with blowing of cheeks, and shrugging of shoulders) that it would be a lot to attempt in the … Read More “Quest for the Third Eye” »

Missing a beat 2011

October 25, 2011September 12, 2026 Gwas 3 Comments

Celestial, Magick, Modern Druidry, Theory, Wheel of the Year

You may have noticed the lack of podcasts this year on Hedge Druid? There’s a reason for that. In the first half of the year the reason could be put down to a mounting pressure of “work”. Mostly this was spiritual work, and with all the good weather we have had in England this year then the Great Outdoors claimed a large part of my time, and this was reflected in the amount of time-consuming podcast work that I could do. Right, that’s my pathetic excuse out of the way. Now, what about the recent months? I did intend to re-establish the podcast once the weather got worse. It has worsened, but still I don’t feel inclined to get back into the studio to record and edit an hour’s worth of audio. Why not? I think there’s a deeper and wider reason.

I have been noticing that other pagan blogs have also begun to falter in their regularity and their commitment. Could it be that we all expanded too quickly, and pushed ourselves too hard to produce content? Possibly, but I think the real reason is due to a difficulty in maintaining momentum when this year has been out of synchronisation with itself. Let me explain.

The Moon, The Sun and The Earth sources

Last year our blogs flourished. Mostly these are blogs that are talking about magickal work, mystical happenings and spiritual progress. What general effect has happened that could account for the difference between last year’s ease and this year’s difficulty? Simple. It is the synchronisation of the phase of the Moon with the Celtic Festival dates. Last year the high points in the solar cycle were matched by high points in the lunar cycle. In other words, at the major lunar festival dates the Moon was also usually in its Full Moon phase.

The Celtic Wheel of the Year is a cycle that records the high points of the year’s energies. It tells the pagan watcher when the Earth itself is producing the most energy in its co-operative cycle with The Sun. In my experience, and I speak only for myself here, I do not use The Sun as my primary magickal power source. For me it is The Moon. Last year was therefore a “bumper year” in terms of the number of coincidences between the Solar and Lunar high points. Magick was abundant and easy. Motivation was plentiful, and so a great deal of work flowed, and many posts got produced. Blogs flourished that dealt with these subjects.

This year the story has been completely reversed, and how dispiriting must that have been to many of our pagan friends whose magickal sources are Moon-dependent? This year the Full Moon phases NEVER coincide with any of the Solar Festival dates in the Celtic Year. Only Spring Equinox came close. The result of this, goes my tenuous hypothesis, is that motivation has taken a battering. Magickal people must have found themselves either doing Sun OR Moon work, but never being able to being the two together.

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