Ladies of the Lakes

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I have been on a bit of a voyage of discovery for the past few years which has brought me to a point of conclusion, kind of.

I have, on my meandering pagan path, wondered into and journeyed through many an old tale. These explorations have always given me the option of following a fascinating criss cross of pathways that lead on far into the realms of pan cultural myth and legend, and so it feels, deeper into the psyche of our distant ancestors.

As ever with this kind of exploration the mind can work overtime on personal ideas of what “truths” may lie buried beneath a crossroads where folklore, story and myth from different cultures connect with others of the same ilk. And this is my passion or curse, to be ever looking for the root of the “thing”, something that is undeniably connective on a fundamentally human level.

For me these explorations are akin to archeological digs, stripping down through years of overlay to find the story’s origins. As you are working through the various versions you can see the change of cultural attitudes over time, also of place as the tale travels, first by word of mouth and then eventually becoming part of our written histories.  Now here I must confess to a level of distress at the dichotomy within the binding of a story in the written word and the freedom and colour of the oral tradition.

On the one hand I am thankful to those who loved or felt it valuable enough to commit the story to parchment, paper or velum so that I may in modern times enjoy a tantalising glimpse of those gone before, feel their pains and joys so like my own. But on the other hand it fixes the narrative, somehow holding it prisoner within paper walls, subject to scrutiny and questioning. Leading to a judgement of correct content or even dismissal of validity if deemed a corrupt version.

A collection of words on a page are an allegory of human emotion and experience that for me come to vivid life when they are spoken aloud. When a talented story teller takes the words and gives them life and character, there is no magic greater for me, which is why I listen to a lot of audio books. Anyhow I have digressed into an area which I didn’t mean to go, back to my point!

If you have read any of my previous posts then you may have seen that I began a journey a year or so back on the Arthurian tales. In a ritual space I asked for a guide through this journey and was given the Lady of the Lake. She stood in the deep shadows, shrouded in deep blue and holding a silver hand mirror. She seemed insubstantial, enigmatic and her purpose with me I found hard to define. But I was grateful for her wish to guide me and spent much of this past year wondering what she meant me to see. In truth most of the time I felt I was letting her down as I felt utterly at a loss as to where I should be looking.

It has taken me some time to understand this journey and the conclusion it has presented to me may be one that many people have come to before, but to my mind, in order to fully comprehend an idea you must have a personal experience of working through it yourself.

I have found that there are many Ladies of the Lake within our myths and legends. Ladies that come from the Otherworld to offer us gifts of love, healing, insight, creativity and a glimpse into things initially beyond normal human achievement. They come and stay for a while and then being flawed and clumsy we break a promise or are negligent in some way and they leave us, bereft and heartsick, though often their children stay and are given powers that help to grow the human understanding.

There are legends of Goddesses/witches/priestesses/fairy women who live on sacred isles, with the gifts of prophecy, healing, craftsmanship and shapeshifting that go back at the very least as far as AD 43. There is often the number nine attached to these groups of women and always they are there helping, guiding and interpreting for us across the years and from beyond the mists. They are independent, strong, cultured and brook no discourtesy to their person. The evidence of them survives in the names of countless stone circles, place names and threaded through our most treasured tales, despite years of many trying to erase or disfigure or besmirch their character, they have persisted.

They are Ceridwen, Brighid, Vivien, Morgan le Faye, the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach and so many more, who lived by the deep lakes, crannogs and islands of Ireland, Britain and Brittany’s ancient past. They have in one way or another continued to hold us with their magic and their mystery, guiding and assisting us all with our intuitions, dreams, creativity and connection to the magic that is all around us in the natural world and beyond.

There is always a moment in life when you find yourself lost, when answers to questions seem so far away as to be unattainable. But should you find yourself standing beside a body of water such as a pool, a lake, a well, or even the great ocean, whether it is still or the waves are restlessly crashing at you feet on the shore, you will find a stillness within. It becomes a mirror for the soul.

Che Guevara says in his Motorcycle diaries ”For me, the sea has always been a confidant, a friend absorbing all it is told and never revealing those secrets: always giving the best advise – its meaningful noise can be interpreted any way you choose.” (Thank you my lovely daughter Rosie for providing me with this quote)

So that is my conclusion, the many and varied Ladies of the Lake are the embodiment of a stilling of the troubled waters, a moment of mirroring for the soul on the lake of life’s sometimes troubled experience. In the past there were dedicants of a feminine mystery, who resided in these isolated and watery places, all we are left with now are their myths and legends and that may be enough as they still touch our hearts and minds so deeply.

My journey with the Ladies is by no means concluded, far from it, even though I have found an answer to why the Lady did me this honour I still have more exploration to do. It just may be a little more focused a journey now.

 

Loved and Lost

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I sit here in my very quiet living room and contemplate the sudden and heartbreaking loss of a very loved companion, my fabulous eleven year old Border Collie Wizbang Wollop. Now before I go any further I want to say that I have no intention to depress anyone with an out pouring of sadness and grief here, but more to acknowledge, as much to myself as to anyone else, that as part of a healing process we have a need to talk, to express our ideas of grief and maybe find some perspective on our feelings. Then the task is to remember the wonderful things that were shared with who or what you have lost, to laugh, to cry and tell the stories of that journey together, to bring a light into the darkness of loss.

Grief can be brought on by the loss of many things, there is a hole that you just can not fill with anyone or anything else, replacement is not an option as nothing could possibly fit that shape hole. A friend described the loss of her partner and the feeling it left her with, in one of the best descriptions I have ever heard, she said something like this “It is like there is a big hole on the floor of your living room, you can not cover it, you can only walk around it, as time passes the hole becomes an integral part of where you live.”

How we deal with loss, whether that is a way of life, a loved one or an item that was precious to us, depends, it seems to me, on how we view life and loss in general. For me my spiritual path is fundamentally guided by the eternal cycles of life, death and rebirth, not that it makes things any easier emotionally for one minute, the pain of loss is just as strong and the process just the same. But, it does help me with a swifter recovery of my equilibrium, bringing myself back to some kind of balance where I can find solace in the pleasures and love shared, rather than grieving for the loss.

My encounters with how death can change life over night have been more than I would wish for anyone, so maybe I found out earlier than some that death and change are the only things to be depended on in life. This first lesson came at the age of eleven when my stepfather died back in the early 70′s. My Mother experienced people crossing the road to avoid talking to her, later they would explain to someone else that “they did not know what to say to her”.

Death is a subject that we would all wish to avoid thinking or talking about if we could, but it is such an integral part of life that the avoidance of speaking about it is surely damaging to our psyche, not to mention our abilities to cope when it does happen in our lives.

My feeling is, there are some things that need to be met head on in order to make any sense of them, or they can make the world seem like such a cruel and unjust place. I am sure in my heart there is no cruel agenda intended from a universal perspective (though I dare not speak for the hearts and minds of some human beings), there is life, there is death and what follows is change/rebirth.

For me the only approach to loss is to take the gifts and memories of who or what has passed. I then look to the future with hope and faith that everything that happens is meant and it is up to me to find the grace and learning within it.

I miss my dog, she was a character and a half and it will be a long time before the hole in my heart becomes just part of the landscape of my existence, like my stepfather, my brother and some of the many other holes in the pattern of my life. But when I pull away from a close up view of the threads that are constantly weaving this pattern of my life, there are no gaps. As I begin to look at the pattern from a distance I see there is colour, shape and design in those threads. They all feed on to the universal loom, working in harmony creating the fabric of existence and recording the incredible story of all life on earth.

 

 

Winter Solstice 2012

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Well at this time of reflection and returning light I thought I’d get my lazy fingers into writing mode again. I have been some what slack in regular posting for which I offer humble apologies and give to myself a ‘must do better’ sticker for the computer, to motivate me.

A few days before this solstice I was struck by a bit of numerological flash of inspiration. Now I am the first to admit that I am not, by any means, an expert on numerology. So I needed to go and check in various places, the details of my illumination. I really hope that I have worked this all out correctly or all this will be a bit of a damp squib! I would be more than happy for anyone with more detailed knowledge out there, to put me right if I have erred.

After much scouring of the web and checking in my limited book references, I found that the numbers I had in my head did seem to be correct, but also I felt, very significant. The whole idea of this solstice being portentous and exciting seemed to be born out, at least for those of us who are in the northern hemisphere and in the same time zone as Britain. This was a little overwhelming but happily not apocalyptic, I will attempt explain my apparent revelation……

The date of the solstice 21.12.2012  translates thus 2+1=3, 1+2=3,  2+0+1+2=5, so  3+3+5=11.  11 is a master number and therefore not reduced to 2, but does hold the characteristics of the number 2.

11 has a meaning of instinct, it is the most intuitive of all numbers. It is your connection to your subconscious, to gut feeling and knowledge. Negative aspects of the 11 can be anxiety, shyness, stressed energy. 11 can be conflicted, but it can be incredibly dynamic if focused on a specific goal and you must guard against self sabotage.

Master number 11 is best used to create personal power and spiritual evolution. Allow your instincts, your inner voice to guide you toward growth and stability. This number is the number of faith, associated with psychics and even prophets.

The precise time of the solstice in the northern hemisphere, in Britain’s time zone was 11.11am, so….11+11= 22 I hope it is so and not 1+1=2, 1+1=2, 2+2=4 or this whole theory goes to pot right here, although even with the numbers reduced it is still significant to my mind!

22 The Master Builder: Is the most powerful of numbers, it is the number that can bring the greatest of ideas into being. It is practical and if worked with discipline, ambition and confidents can bring amazing success. But like all things there is the need to be aware of the pit falls of applying to much pressure to yourself of running scared to take the opportunities offered by the universe. With 22 we have a real opportunity to change the world in an effective and practical way.

11+22=33

33 Master Teacher, by combining 11 and 22 to make 33 we enhance all the aspects of intuition and the ability to bring them to fruition to an entirely new level. If this number is used to its full potential, it will work for the greater good. The ideas will go beyond personal agendas to focus on humanitarian issues and will be capable of changing the world. It represents, full knowledge of self and situations also the ability to work to full capacity.

33 is rare and only significant when it is a “core” number, which I think holds in this case as it refers to this situation, considering it is related to a significant solstice.

So to sum up 11, 22 and 33 make a triangle of enlightenment, which we can take into our understanding, using them to make focused changes in our own lives and as a consequence, changes in the world with the energetic ripples we create.

Now if I have got the sums right, I feel that is an amazing idea to bring into the new year. Happily the media hype and general hysteria that surrounded the Mayan calendar and any apocalyptic insights it might have had, have now passed us by without incident, so we can move into new cycles with an open heart. As I type this post I am aware of the last full moon of 2012 is climbing into the night sky and I am thinking about how I can make good use of everything I have gleaned from this last cycle. So amongst my other new years resolutions, I absolutely resolve to make as many positive ripples into the universe as I can manage and I urge everyone to join me.

 

 

 

 

Blimey, what a year!

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a moment of stillnessIt is some time since my last post and the reason for that is an immensely busy year of travel and incredible experiences, both wonderful and scary. I always take at least a few moments everyday to thank the Gods for the amazing gifts I have been given, today is no exception. Tired as I am from the constant travelling, working and general hubbub of our crazy, creative and magical lives, I would not change much at all.

However there comes a time when you have to look at what you are doing and really make sure that you are working with full conscious energy and not just flying along on the crest of a wave only to be dumped down on a distant shore with no idea of which way is up.

With that in mind and it being that time of year, just after Samhain and just before the Winter Solstice, it feels right to bring things to a gentle but firm halt for just a little. To take a little time to take a breath and review the adventure so far, I guess that turning fifty years of age also adds to the need to review and retune, being, I would imagine, more than half way through this crazy little thing we call life.

For myself and many others Samhain is a perfect time for reviewing the year and some say that the energy and focus of it lasted for anything up to a month in ancient times. There has been a lot of hardship and change for many that I know and care for across the world, though most that I speak to are philosophical and accepting of the changes it has made for a tough year. My own family have had to face very worrying health scares of family members and watched as they struggle to change long held patterns of behaviour, to find a new and healthier way to be in the world. Watching someone you love struggling is harder than going through it yourself in some ways, but in order for the changes to work the person has to be able to climb the mountain and plant the flag of success themselves. That sense of achievement and empowerment is not something you can give anyone, but you can be there to encourage and support their efforts all the way.

This year I have deliberately pushed myself beyond my own boundaries of comfort and emotional safety. I have given a talk on my artwork in Vienna and workshops on a number of subjects close to my heart at the various wonderful places we have been to in Australia, America, Canada and the Czech Republic and have been given fabulous support that has even given me the confidence to start my book….watch this space. I feel I have grown and worked on myself and even want to try more things next year.

My primary spiritual work this year has been with the energies of the Cauldrons of Transformation and Inspiration (not very surprising considering it being 2012) and with the deepening of knowledge through experience of this land’s ancient tales of Arthur’s Grail quest and Ceridwen’s story. Both of these ancient tales contain so much of our primary knowledge of British Shamanism, but for me they also contain much that can help us connect to and understand our nations fundamental nature. My Guide for the Arthurian journey has been the Lady of the Lake and my symbol of connection to her is a mirror a powerful tool and no mistake, but more on that another day.

Suffice to say I am not done with my journeys in

 

to our ancient tales by a long way yet, maybe not until the day I leave for the next world. But at this moment, as allow myself to bob gently on the deep waters of emotion and experience, I am calm and reflective and almost ready to catch the next wave when it comes to pick up this little coracle and set it racing onto the next part of myjourney.

What the Didgeridoo told me!

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Damh and myself have recently returned from another wonderful trip to Australia where we have had the complete pleasure of sharing our view of the world with other like minded people who follow and similar pagan path. We felt so at home and welcome in the community that it was hard to leave. The music and magic that is the combination of people following not only the call of their European heritage, but also responding to the call of the land and doing full honour to it in all its infinate diversity and uniqueness.

And there is the root of my pondering today, there seems to be, amongst the world wide pagan community, a rising interest in modern druidry at the moment. Whilst over the past few years at home in Albion and in some parts of the American pagan scene there have been great, heated debates and even out right verbal wars on whether anyone can call themselves a druid or not.

The debates often centred on what the druids of old did or didn’t do according to one “expert” or another and the sometimes unpleasant toing and froing of the need to be of “Celtic” genealogy in order to be eligible to call yourself a druid. People seemed to me to have lost sight in all the mental warfare of the fact that Druidry was always the magic of land, sky and sea and all that lay contained therein. Every story speaks of “shamanic” practises and a deep seated knowledge of the land and it’s people wherever the druid lived and worked.

This seems to me to be the pertinent point of druidry, ancient or modern. The wit and knowledge to explore the connection between yourself and the land you live on, the water which flows through it, and then to contemplate the universe above, to push beyond normal perception, this is what defines a druid to me, regardless of academic knowledge or genealogy.

To sit with yourself and find a still point within, to feel your heart beating and the rhythmic movement of your lungs pulling in and then releasing the life giving air. When the still point is found you can reach out beyond the self and feel a connection to all life breathing and pulsing all around you. Reaching out  and catching that connection, that is the stuff of my druidry. It is the thing that everyday makes me feel supported and nurtured, I am never alone I have the whole world to comfort me, all I have to do is tune in and feel it.

Whether you believe in the Gods or not makes no difference to me, whether you believe that all life is a great cosmic coincidence is of no interest either, my druidry is based in the now, it is inspired by the ancestors and exploring all that they have left us, but it is really based on my experience and my willingness to be open to anything and anyone that might expand my world view and bring me to a greater understanding of the wonderful mystery that is life.

It is like listening to the digeridoo player in the market in Brisbane. For the first time I truly understood the power and magic of that ancient instrument – as he played he was the voice of the land itself. The song of the kookaburra made me weep uncontrollably as the realisation hit me. To truly understand the magic of the instrument you must hear it played on the land it belongs to. I have known some amazing didge players over the years, but none has touched me as deeply as the Samoan man who was not technically good, but he understood the magic, and on that market street corner so did I. And this is another example of the basics of druidry to me.

In the same way I understand the poems of Taliesin and Amergin when they speak of being the stag or a wave on the ocean, it is a deep communion and true feeling of belonging that enables them to bring into words the magic of true belonging and connection and these are the songs of our lands, words are our instruments – story, poetry and song are our didgeridoos.

The rise of modern Druidry today is about allowing the song of the land, wherever that land may be, to sing through loud and clear. In my opinion it is time to put aside old ideas of some mythical, idealistic concept of a “golden age of the druids” or prejudiced ideas of DNA making a druid, and to ask politely that all the negative voices just for a moment take time to sink into that still point and allow themselves the joy of peace and calm reflection.

Instead of shouting about what it cannot be, let us take druidry today back to the fundamental principles of connection and make it a vibrant, relevant and magical path based on the knowledge and inspirations of the past, but with a full and engaging understanding of the here and now.

Earth Spirits, fact or fiction?

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For some reason I have been thinking lately of a video I saw a few years ago on You tube called the ‘Wild Horses of Newbury’ and as often happens with these things, a magical synchronicity happened and someone posted it up on Facebook yesterday. For those of you who have not seen this piece of footage it is a recording of  something that happened at the Newbury bypass protests some years ago as some wonderful old Oaks were being felled to make way for yet another road.

As the Oaks were being cut and felled by the chainsaws in front of  the protesters, an army of  police on horses and yellow jacketed “security”,  in dark sunglasses many of them, hired for the “safety” of all, a pair of dark horses came running out of the fields apparently from no where. They ran to the trees being felled, in and through all of the crowds of yellow jackets they ran. The horses were obviously distressed, running backwards and forwards around the scene to the surprise and bewilderment of the officials. Then one of the horses went up to the row of police horses and seemed to speak to one in particular, it pressed it’s face onto the police horse and they seemed to be speaking to each other, the policeman sat stunned on the back of his horse and no one was sure what to do. After a while the horses left going back to where ever they had come, leaving the protesters sure that the spirits of the trees and the land had spoken to all present that day. Even as I write this now I find it hard to fight back the emotion from watching this clip of film again. I was not at the road protest but I know  the sense of loss stays with many after all this time. I strongly recommend everyone to watch it, especially any of those who find it hard to see beyond the atheistic fog that hangs over paganism these days.

For me the above encounter serves to confirm the ideas I have always believed, that all things are connected and that all life has the ability to communicate across species, gender and culture, if we only have the ears to listen and the eyes to see. It was just like the bit in the movie Avatar when the whole of life gathers together in one final showdown with the humans to fight back their destruction, I wonder if the director had seen the Newbury horses on YouTube?

The Horse has been a symbol of Sovereignty for thousands of years. Kings regularly symbolically married a horse as part of his coronation ceremony. The great White Horse carved into the chalk hill at Uffington in Wiltshire attests to their influence on our forebears and even today many cultures have them as a powerful part of their shamanic traditions. Then there is the Oak, a symbol of strength and majesty, it has been revered as the Druids tree for so many years. The great oaks of our lands have been a bridge between the upper, middle and lower worlds for millennia, a place to gather for communities for problems to be solved, celebrations to enjoy and names to be carved to declare undying love and, Oh irony of ironies, they have been a symbol of protection in the form of house frames, doors and ships. So is it any wonder, as the horses ran through the dreadful scene of destruction, that all watching felt that the spirits of nature were trying to tell us all to look at what we do, that something truly otherworldly was going on in those moments.

Watching programs like the three part BBC series ‘How to Grow a Planet’ also helps – again science proving everything I have always felt, you will never look at plants the same way after that program! Plants communicate with each other sending danger signals to warn of predators, their breathing process is responsible for the air we breath, everything has sentience even the blades of grass under your feet.

Many years ago these ideas became something of a mini crisis, I became very freaked out even cutting up carrots after watching a ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ (Roald Dahl  stories on TV), where a man invents a machine that could hear plants. He set it up next to an Oak and then hit the tree with an axe, the machine picked up the scream, he was also by a field of wheat being cut…..well I tell you I was a total vegetarian at the time and began to have real problems eating anything at all, it is all alive and breathing! Obviously I have calmed down a bit since and now needless to say try to honour everything I eat. I think that what this may be teaching me is that I have, at times, watched too much TV!

But seriously, if a person should ever need reminding or indeed the understanding that everything that lives, no matter what form it may take, is full of soulful, sentient energy, watching the Horses of Newbury will do it every time.

blessed be

Quantum theory, new jargon for an ancient understanding?

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This week I watched a program called “What the bleep do we know?” it has poked my “need to chew this over” button. It is full of scientists, psychologists and doctors of this and that working in various fields, but it is basically a new age film about how we all make our own lives and its all down to Quantum physics, as you would imagine it sets one thinking.

On the whole I would not disagree with much of the content as it is based on the one piece of information that has been a consistent part of my belief system for many years, that is that there is nothing solid, everything is vibrating energy. This means that anything, absolutely anything is possible even probable and that everything is connected. But, and for me it is a big but, there was a basic premise threaded through the whole film that rankled with me, that is the idea that our lives are only created moment to moment by the thoughts that we, as individuals, put out into the energetic potential. So if you think bad thoughts it means bad things will happen, i.e. you get ill, you grow old, your life gets messed up….etc it is all down to your way of thinking, they even subtly imply that you could live forever if you get your thoughts right and never, ever have to have a bad thing happen to you, ever.

Now while to a large degree it is true that a good state of mind alters health, mental well being and how you attract things into your life, I don’t see how it  can be stated that the individual is unaffected by all of the other individuals (and for me the individuals include everything that exists from a blade of grass to the cosmos) doing the same thing you are, isn’t that just a bit silly? And the idea that you can go through life and not ever have to deal with anything negative, really?

Surely it is how you deal with the negatives in your life that help you to grow as a person and help make better more informed choices for yourself and the world in which you live? Have they understood cause and effect, the chaos theory…..butterflies and tornados etc… properly?  To imagine that the individual is autonomous, living in a unique and moment by moment existence that they alone create, yet all is connected is a conflicting message to me.

But enough ranting about new age theories mixed with science and a bit of omnipresent being to keep the majority happy, if I truly believe that anything and everything is possible…I have to concede they have a chance of being right somewhere too!

Anyhow the more I hear about quantum theory and many other scientific theories around at the moment, it seems to me that they are just giving a new jargon to what the ancients were saying all along.  For instance the Anglo Saxons had a belief structure that they called the ‘Wyrd’, which put in a very tiny nutshell, is the understanding that all things are connected, past, present and future  all affect each other. The individual is part of the whole and how they behave reflects not only in their own present environment, family and tribe, but also affects their descendants lives and luck. It is like a great multidimensional tapestry being woven from everyone and everything’s threads, each individual part affecting the whole pattern, adding to the diversity and texture. There are aspects of fate within the concept, but not so fixed that our thoughts, actions and intentions can not affect outcomes, therefore we must presume a need for personal responsibility for said intentions, thoughts and actions.

If we look around the ancient texts we can find this is a familiar concept, the multidimensional universe was widely understood,  agreed on and happily accepted in various forms pan-culturally. This all makes perfect sense to me and if I have to fall into any line of  thinking it best suits my experience of the human existence so far, so Mr scientist nothing new to see here move along, next theory to prove the ancients correct again please!

I think that “The Bard’  (for all you ancient Britain scholars out there I mean Shakespeare not Taliesin this time) penned the most appropriate lines for this apparent world that we live in and I take leave to quote him as a finish to my odd and rambling rant……

Prospero:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

Heritage, Spirituality and the Land

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I am about to embark on two new pieces of art this month, one of which is for the Spirit of Albion film that will be coming out in May, which will be hopefully a groovy montage of God and Goddess faces (obviously the actors playing the said Gods and Goddesses in the film) along with appropriate symbolism. The other is  a little more complicated in idea as it is for the cover of a CD to be recorded in Australia by my partner Damh the Bard, specifically for a group of sponsor’s who have generously contributed to our next visit in May, all of this being organised by the amazing band members of  Spiral Dance.

The reason that the second piece will be more complicated is purely from my own point of view, it should in fact, be a simple piece considering it’s purpose (the majority of my friends will know that this is a pretty usual state of affairs with me though). Let me explain, the first time Damh and I went to Australia I was interested to see how Pagan people, with a relatively recent European heritage, worked with the land and how it shaped their spirituality. How different was the language of the land from Britain, Ireland or mainland Europe or any other continent who’s inhabitants moved there to find a different life for themselves? How did the Southern Hemisphere feel when working ritual? Seeing the Sun and Moon wax and wane across the sky in a mirrored fashion, from my point of view, was quite disconcerting and finding any sense of direction for me almost went away completely, generally I had quiet a good sense of direction.

One thing was very clear to me from that first and our subsequent visit was, that the land was undoubtedly in charge, without malice or agenda but definitely in charge. I know that seems an obvious thing to say, but coming from Britain where the land has practically no say in how it is dealt with, I felt the land in Australia has an enormous presence and it was both wonderful and awe inspiring. I wondered if that feeling could possibly have been a small inkling into how our ancient forebears felt about our lands before the ending of nomadic lives and the coming of farming in Europe.

So how then do you communicate with such an entity? The indigenous peoples have their bond by blood and bone, they are part of the land and it is part of them over many thousands of years, their stories, songs and artwork speak of their Dreamtime, their ancient and not so ancient ancestors, the shape of the land that sustained them and how it speaks to them.

But what of the Pagan people of European heritage I have met on the two journeys so far?  Those Pagan people (I can not speak about non-pagans as I didn’t really meet many) who were born there or have recently moved there feel passionate and connected with the land and all it is, they fight to protect its uniqueness from incoming plants and animals that upset the natural balance and they honour the indigenous peoples and their territories at every Pagan gathering. But they still have a wealth of heritage of their own blood and bone built over thousands of years that needs to be honoured also. How do you blend the two seemingly opposite lands, the stellar mirroring and cultures?

In truth they blend quiet successfully and in many diverse ways, for instance working with an ancient idea of tree lore such as the Ogham and finding the correlation within the local trees takes time but can be easily be done and is being done. The animals seem very alien at first and finding any similarity for a  newcomer like myself foxed me. But then I stopped and watch the kangaroos bouncing across the bush, shy and retiring if we got too close and they strongly reminded me of deer in the woodland. Finding a way to relate the European Pagan wheel of the year also can seem at odds with the Southern hemisphere, but again on closer inspection it seemed to me that the effects of  Summer in Australia are pretty similar to winter in Britain. The land, grasses and greens die down in the heat and become brown and crisp looking, whereas in the Winter everything picks up, it is the mirror effect again and maybe that is the root I have need to take with this piece of artwork. It is a case of learning to look in the mirror and see the true reflections.

The magic and wonder of a mirror image and the echos of history that are reflected back through the glass of time……

A new cycle begins

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So for the northern hemisphere the Sun has begun the waxing cycle and we have celebrated the event in Britain our amazingly multi cultural island, with the many and varied religious rituals and rites associated with this time of year, not to mention enough food and drink to make Bacchus blush. Now we move toward the calendrical new year with another long held tradition, the ritual writing of our “new years resolutions”. How many of us have made list of these over the years? Some we have kept and many broken, a thousand and one good intentions and commitments to ourselves both large and small.

As with many other people my mind has been working that way for the past few weeks, to compound this energetic there has been much build up toward the next Winter Solstice 2012 as a seminal point of change for the world, this is of course based on the ending of the Mayan calendar at that point. Though much of the hype around this event has been exaggerated and embellished with all kinds of dreadful omens and prophesies, it was/is, never the less considered a major point in our celestial cycle and possibly even our spiritual/emotional cycle also. With all that weighty stuff hanging in the air and ready to unfold throughout the year, it feels particularly poignant to think of life, love and spiritual reviews and what we might all do if this coming year really does turn out to be a year of immense import, are we prepared for anything?

For me the repeated resolutions have to be to a deeper commitment to my personal spiritual practise such as meditation, as it is one of the hardest things to commit to myself to on a daily basis, it is always easier to do the practical things first and things for others before making that commitment to oneself. So my “new years resolution” list is something like this….meditate more often, take time to read, keep a diary and do a piece of art every day, oh and of course keep an eye on the news for impending epic doom.

But seriously I do truly feel we could be poised on the crest of a powerful wave that has the potential to take us all on a fast ride into a brighter future. Consciousness is slowly but surely being raised on many levels with education and information available through so many of our media systems.  We have seen over this past year that big businesses, governments and other money driven enterprises have been harried and pushed to change the way they do things as people across the globe have started to jump down their throats and bring them to task. Technology has the power to work for the good of the environment and the people as it becomes more accessible to all, it is no longer a domain of a privileged elite. It is shrinking the world, breaking down barriers, misconceptions and bringing a global consciousness into being, as things like mobile phones become an eye into, and a communication out of, previously closed worlds.

In my idealistic vision of a brave new world we will find that no matter what colour, creed or religion we have more in common than we have differences, and if we can just let go of the outmoded idea that we should all follow one credo, then we can build something that brings people together without falling into the trap of needing everyone to be the same. The wave of energy beneath us requires us to keep our emotional, intellectual, spiritual balance, and focus in order to read the signs and make the best use of it. If we can and do this together we can ride this wave safely right onto the shores of a brave new world.

Idealistic I know, but it gets me up in the morning and with these grand visions in my head it may help me focus on the small things I can change everyday….like not having another chocolate out that box and having an apple instead, drawing it before I eat it and meditating on the good it is doing me!

Leonardo Da Vinci, Armin Mersmann and others

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It will be obvious to anyone who read my last post that the idea of going back to the root source of what inspires me is occupying my mind greatly. I feel that there is a need every so often to reexamine what we do and why we do it and I am truly in that mode at this moment in time. 

I have again been watching a number of programs over the past weeks about Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo is and always has been since I can remember, my total hero, if I were that way inclined I would “model” (NLP terminology) myself on him and all his methods, though not the dissecting thing obviously, luckily he and many others have already been there and done that for me, phew! He was/is the ultimate rebel, visionary, a naturalist to put even Ray Mears to shame and a thinker of such profound intelligence and spirituality that few have surpassed him in my view….He sits along side the small hand full of human minds that seem to been open to comprehend the universal mysteries and yet somehow he remained open to and able to convey the spiritual aspects of it all in his work.

I digress….The first of these programs was about the rediscovery of a lost work of his, a jaw droppingly stunning and utterly moving painting of the face of Christ (which to my complete joy I will be going to see in February)…..and the most recent being the repeat of a dramatised series on the BBC. Added to this I saw a post on yesterday Facebook about another artist I really admire, Armin Mersmann who’s work is a good deal in one of favourite mediums Graphite and is also jaw droppingly stunning. What both of these genius artists seem to be telling me at the moment is, before all else comes observation and I don’t just mean looking with the eyes.

What they seem to be able to convey goes beyond what can be seen on the surface, it is what the picture can say to your emotions, your heart and soul. What makes a piece of art Art? What is it that takes light, shade and colour from being a good use of materials to something that makes you cry with the beauty and spirit of it? Answers on a post card please ……

As I take this path of rediscovery further I have to apply it to my whole life and work, where do I go from here, what is the point of what I do? what do I want to say? how do I reapply the art of observation to my spiritual being? well in truth I know that to apply the art of observation to one aspect necessitates the application to all aspects of conscious living, it is a cascade affect that revels light and shadow previously veiled by half closed, tired eyes. Once the alarm has chimed incessantly rousing you from sleep and you throw back the curtains to reveal the fresh new light, you can not help but notice even familiar things with a fresher, sharper eye.

All this is in no way to justify the £90 I spent on art books yesterday…well maybe a little. But in truth I think for me the energy of this time the Winter Solstice has much to do with wanting to go back to the womb, to reform myself, to taking time to learn and improve on a practical level so that I can consciously reemerge at Imbolc/Spring refreshed, renewed and ready to take life and all it entails for me and my artistic/spiritual expression to another level of engagement.