Extract from my Notes on the Druid Retreat 2003
After breakfast I set off for the woods, having decided that today I
was going to find the entrance gate and the main path. Wayne had given
me specific instructions last night saying I couldn’t fail to find
it now! I walked along the edge of the meadow instead of straight across
it as I usually do, and on arriving at the entrance to the woods I looked
for the gate. But still I could not find it. I walked along the edge of
the wood to where I usually go in. As I asked permission from the Guardian
of the woods I stopped. I heard him say to me that yes I was welcome to
enter the woods, but today there would be a price to pay. He wanted me
to make a pact with him. I asked what that pact was and he said that instead
of my usual meandering through the woods and along tiny tracks, he wanted
me today to stick to the main paths. And not to deviate off them. I was
to use the main paths only. That was his condition for giving me permission
to enter. I thought about it for a moment, wondering why, and then said
that yes, I would honour this pact. I would today stick to the main paths
only. I entered and walked along by the stream, as I did on Friday, only
this time when I came to the t junction at the end of the narrow path,
I heard the Guardian of the woods remind me to stick to the wider more
well used and public track and not go into the depth of the woods. As
I was about to walk on I felt drips on my head and looked up. The trees
were shedding either last night's rain or the early morning dew. It was
still only 8 a.m. As the drips fell on my head and shoulders I felt as
if I was being cleansed.
I started off along this main track and after walking a short way noticed
lots of tiny fungi. Last year I had not seen any fungi at all, fungi being
my passion, and so far this year I hadn't either, but all around me now
was tiny tiny fungi which looked like little stars sitting on the ground.
I walked on and as I was walking I started to talk to the Guardian of
the woods. I asked why he had asked for this pact from me today. Was there
a reason for it. He said yes there was. I am walking the main public paths
today to show me that there are times when I need to walk the same path
as, and with, others. I was on my own today walking along this main path,
but the lesson behind this is, that my next step on my spiritual path
is to walk my path with others, and not solitary. He then acknowledged
that I am trying to integrate and work with others, and that he saw this
as a big step forward for me. He acknowledged I don’t always find
it easy to integrate with others, but because I am trying, I will be given
help, and I will find it gets easier as, by integrating, I come to know
and make friends with many people.
By now I had reached the top of the woods and come across a crossroads
of main tracks. I saw a tiny track leading into the midst of the woods
that looked interesting, but I knew I must honour my pact and stick to
the main paths. So I choose the path directly ahead. It led into fields
and the views were spectacular. I picked and ate some blackberries and
they were sweeter than other blackberries I had picked. The sun was by
now so warm and the sky was a clear blue. I had noticed when I was walking
how different the woods seemed after the rain of yesterday. They smelt
fresher and looked clearer.
I came to the end of the ploughed field and walked on a bit further.
The hawthorn up here was lovely and the berries were large and bright.
I picked a small spray to take back to the altar. I was beginning to tire
now and my back ached slightly. I saw a dead tree and as I went to sit
down to rest against it I was stunned. Growing on this dead tree was the
largest jew’s ear fungus I have ever come across. It was so large
I felt I could sit on it comfortably, if it were able to take my weight.
It went from a ring of pale magnolia at the front through to deep, deep
chestnut brown at the back. On looking at it quickly it looked as if someone
had moulded a piece of cotswold stone into the trunk of the tree. It looked
so solid. Above it were four other baby ones whose colour was mainly pale
magnolia to a pale brown colouring. There was a fairly large one in another
part of the tree. But it was the enormous fungi that had my attention.
I became very passionate and very excited the more I looked at it as it
nestled in amongst the top of the tree root. I couldn’t get over
its size and colouring. And I couldn’t get over the way it had stirred
my passion and excitement in coming across such a fantastically large
specimen of jew’s ear fungi. I thanked spirit for showing me something
that had excited me so much, and I smiled as I thought that if the Guardian
of the woods had not asked me to make a pact of keeping to the main paths,
I would not have come across it. And I felt that I had been rewarded for
honouring my pact and staying on the main paths, although a couple of
times it had been quite hard not to deviate off.
I stayed there for quite a while and then decided to turn round and come
back through the woods down the other main path. I walked back along the
edge of the ploughed field and came across some beautiful teasels. I asked
that with permission may I take two of the teasels. I didn’t have
a knife but managed to break two teasels off the main plant. It wasn’t
easy but I knew that by managing to eventually break them off, the plant
had given its permission for me to take them. If it had not wanted me
to take them, then I would never have been able to break them and would
have needed to cut them with a knife.
I got back to the edge of the woods and was looking at the other main
path when I heard the Guardian of the woods say to me that I was released
from my pact. I had honoured it; I had stuck to it; and I had acknowledged
the lesson of it; so now he gave me my freedom to go wherever I wanted
to go. I thanked him for this and headed off in the direction of a smaller
track and wound my way slowly back through the woods, using smaller tracks
and not the main paths. But by now I had been out walking for well over
three hours and my back and sciatica were starting to hurt badly, so when
I found a path I recognised I stayed on it and came down and out of the
woods.
I walked back across the meadow and back across the stream into the garden.
My back was hurting and I knew I wanted to go into the wood circle and
lay down.
________________
It was time to go into the Angel Room for the closing ritual. Bobcat
said she wanted to go round the circle with each of us saying our opening
word, and if we had forgotten it then call on spirit to remind us. We
did this and then she said she wanted to go round the circle again and
each of us to say one word that we felt was appropriate to the outcome
of the weekend. What word expressed what we felt we had achieved or word
summed up what we had learnt in connection with our opening word. My word
was "Direction", and I knew that this resonated with my opening
word of "Growth". I had asked to grow in all ways and I felt
I had. I had joined in comfortably chatting with others this year, I had
not had a problem with the silence, I had tried to work through problems
that had arisen this weekend and not hidden away from them. I felt the
word "Direction" was where I had come to. The Guardian of the
woods had shown me my direction is to join in, work with, and integrate
with others now, and slowly leave the solitary path behind me. Maybe not
forever, but for now. My next step is to leave the solitary and move towards
integration. This is the Direction I am now able to move on to from the
Growth I had stated as being my purpose for the Retreat.
Sue Bouvier
12.9.2003
