Ma hutte de sudation, My sweat lodge

Construction de mon chaudron de sudation avant Samonios 2007

J’ai monté la structure sur une base de 12 perches pour la symbolique de la roue des saisons.

Je l’ai faite semi enterrée pour me rapprocher de la symbolique du Tigh ‘N Alluis.

Idéalement j’aurais aimé la faire totalement en pierre mais ça manque de pierre adéquate dans mon pagus

J’ai travaillé sur le réseau tellurique sur un axe est – ouest

La hutte est plein ouest lieu de l’eau et de la naissance, la porte de la hutte est donc à l’est symbolique de l’air et de l’exposition.

Le lieu du feu est placé à l’est symbolique de l’exposition de pierres sur le bûché

Le tertre est entre les deux avec un petit menhir planté dessus. Omphalos : centre de la roue

Ces trois parties sont donc aligné sur un ligne tellurique est ouest et également positionné sur des nœuds cardinaux du réseau.

Le centre de la hutte la ou se trouve le trou pour déposer les pierres, le menhir, et le feu sont donc chacun sur des croisements de lignes. Ceci afin que la magie du rite et le chant de nos prières se diffuse dans les veines de la Terre, par le pouvoir de la Wouivre.

Bran

Par quoi commencer ?

Puisse cette page être le reflet et le partage de mon chemin bardique, à travers l'artisanat et le tissage, la clairière de Tinne a Duir, et la harpe celtique.

Qu'elle soit également le reflet de la triple spirale qui nourrit mon chemin druidique, grâce au Druid Network, à l'Assemblée Druidique du Chêne et du Sanglier, et à l'OBOD.

Having started to work through the A Perennial Course in Living Druidry.

So I wasn't sure what to expect but have found it opens up interesting thoughts and emotions. The structure is set to allow you to get as little or as much as you need.

Starting in October helped as everything was finished for the year and the Dark time was approaching allowing us to start fresh.

Yule was interesting with a cold stonehenge and finaly getting Christmas out of the way (I do hate christmas).

But now in the stillness and rest, the time to reflect and look forward to what the rest of the year will bring.

If I am honest I am excited at the chalenges and potential it holds. To be able to apply a differant way of thinking and living.

So this moon has be of wind tossed has been interesting and changing taking us up to the Equinox changes and thought challanges. And how strange to have a full moon in the middle that disapears in an eclipse. That had interesting energies. But everything is waking up and streching there limbs, beauty is taking over again and life is building again.

Will add to this as I walk through each step

I've made a commitment to build relationships with my ancestors. As a symbol of this I have created a necklace of yew beads. The wood was taken with permission from a fallen branch lying next to a yew tree growing in my local church grounds.

As a continuous circle it represents both my ancestors and my descendants. From my mother it stretches back to my oldest wildest most ancient grandmothers. I feel my connection with them, blood to blood, through each birth. As I grow to know them, my connections with the women of my bloodline connect me to the men of my lineage.

I wear the necklace when I bleed. Each blood tide I work to know my ancestors. Each bead is painted with my blood, another coat added with each passing cycle. These yew beads inspire my work and are painted and blessed by my growing knowledge of the yew and my ancestors.

I have made a commitment to learning about plant spirits; as stories within the rich dense fabric of the web, as vibrant souls singing their unique songs. I want to learn about them to craft relationships with them, not to use them - simply to know them.

I am grateful to Rob, Cathi and Bobcat for their advice and I hope within these pages to slowly share what I learn, that it may inspire others. /|\

Twice a year I give a lecture on "hearing voices" at the local nursing school to students who have chosen to work in the psychiatric field. The following is a kind of summary of what I tell them.

We all know the phenomenon of "hearing" someone calling us and when looking up there is no one around; nothing wrong with this happening. About 2 percent of the population (in any given country) is hearing 'voices' on a daily basis, without being hindered by them to do their daily work. These people experience their 'voices" as telepathic
events, messages from guides, angles etc. or as communication with the departed and a variety of other possibilities. Many of these individuals are considered (by themselves or by others) to be "gifted". Many people hear "voices"due to an illness. Most common is 'raving' during a fever, but this can also occur when suffering from a kidney-, a liver- or brain disease for example, and disappears often when the condition is cured. About 1 percent of the population goes through a psychosis 1 or more times in their lives. The 'voices' they hear have a great negative impact on them : the 'voices' can comment in a very negative way on the patients thoughts; they can "command" the patients etc.

Usually the patient is very frightened; he often thinks the 'voices' are telling him secrets and the patient suffers very much of what he 'hears' , so much that he is doing strange things (sometimes even dangerous things), becoming a quite different person then he was before the hallucinations started. It then is time to consider professional aid by a psychiatrist and hospitalisation. Therapy consist of offering to the patient anti psychotic drugs and a variety of none drug therapies meant to help the patient to get insight in his disease. Only in 1 out of 10 cases the patient only has 1 episode and can live without drugs or other help; 9 out of 10 patients will be disabled for life needing medicine and
support all their days. It is very sad that about 25 % of these people take their own lives because of the pain and disorder they are experiencing; often between the age of 25 and 30.

In the 19th century Freud was the first one who put forward the thought that psychotic people actually "hear" their own thoughts, that they are ashamed of or that for some other reason are threatening to the patient. Some years ago a psychologist designed an elegant experiment : he created a list of 25 words. He then asked people to add another 25 words to the list. After 10 minutes he showed a word to the person and asked if this word was from the original list or added by the person. "Normal" people were quite accurate on this but psychotic people said to almost every word that it was from the original list. This test indicates that hallucinating people fairly quickly externalise, dissociate from their own thoughts. MRI scan brought the following to light. When a person is listening to a voice (recorded) the images of the brain show some little parts are very active. If a patient is asked to indicate when he is hearing "voices" the same area's of the brain are active as when listening to a real voice. This opens the possibility of treating specific parts of the brain; one experimental treatment consists of bringing a strong magnetic field to these parts thus blocking electric activity; the results up to now are promising.(But then I guess that is what every scientist claims during the course of research.)

When you hear 'voices' for the first time (not seeking to experience a "different state of mind") you can get very confused, frightened, depressed and even angry. You may believe you "hear" what people are thinking of you, and when these "thoughts" are very negative you can get quite paranoid. You may "hear" people say things, that afterwards appear to never have been said. Quite confusing. You may think ghosts are talking to you, or devils etc. Often you feel there is/are (a) completely different world(s) beyond the every day world, but this/these world(s) is/are
hell(s). Because the "voices" consume your attention and energy totally you become exhausted. Whenever you are awake you're confronted with the "ugliness" of the "voices'', and trying to cope by inventing (often rather bizarre) explanations for what you experience. At first no one seems to notice your strange thoughts, but slowly (or sometimes suddenly) people are getting nervous when your around, talking about what is on your mind; you start to see rejection, despair, anger, disgust of what your saying and doing in the eyes of your friends and family.
Then comes the moment that somebody (often a parent or a partner) says "Doctor"; in most cases this is a moment of great relief, perhaps things are going to change for the better!; but in some cases you have to be forced to accept help from professionals because you don't think your ill or because you'r just stiff scared.

So the treatment starts. If you're lucky the medicines will make the 'voices' disappear within 6 weeks, if you're average that will take 3-4 months and 2 or 3 drugs and if you are unlucky you belong to the 20-30 percent who still hear 'voices' whatever anti psychotics in whatever doses are given to you. You're taught that it is common knowledge that the 'voices' are a reaction on a dis balance of histamine, dopamine and serotonin in your brain. The anti psychotic drug takes the place of dopamine in your brain, occupying 70-80 percent of the dopamine receptors, blocking
them. However there are professionals who say the drugs are only making you numb. You are told it is all a question of nature, nurture and trauma; of genes, upbringing and life events. Your described as very sensitive, as someone with a vivid imagination, who can get lost in fantasies, or somebody with quite a strong urge the think things trough and through and through until there is nothing left. Your fellow patients will tell you about the genes, about their terrible youth, about horrifying trauma's; and that they have a brain disorder, or that they have second sight, or that they have been touched by the hands of the Gods, or that they started journeying spontaneously and uncontrolled, or ???
A psychiatrist told me 'the boundaries between person, space and time have disappeared in psychotic people'.

Hennie

For most of my life I've had severe chronic asthma - and for most of my life I've been an artist. The latter is inevitably as a spin-off from the former, because I've always been far too puffed to move anywhere fast, too allergic to chlorine to make any bid on Olympic swimming medals, and too thick to set my sights on a career in quantum or astro physics. So I smile at myself (with good humour) and I paint - and carve - and put things together.

A few months ago (coinciding synchronistically with my Dedication to the Order of the Yew) I decided I wanted to start being creative in ways I'd never contemplated before. I'd previously been a commercial artist, and for many years earned a good living as such - but I now felt that sort of art was hollow and devoid of soul and real meaning. It was technically highly competent, and satisfied the client, but essentially it was transient art for a throw-away culture.

I think it took me all of a fortnight, once my soul's longing was given voice, to give up my job and raid the local art shop for paints and canvasses and anything-else-that-looked-potentially-useful. I began to make drums, remade Remos crafted with care and dedication in sacred space where every brushstroke is a prayer and a blessing placed with focus and intent. I began to get asked to birth drums for others - and then other ritual objects like staffs, robes, bowls ..... anything.

This, for me, is work of immense privelege. My heart is full, as I write this, with the utmost respect for All Beings, seen and unseen, that help in this creativity that comes through me for the empowerment of a person walking their Path alongside. In this sacred work I touch the dark void of potential, where all things exist in spirit, and make certain of them manifest in this world of Newtonian solidity - with honour and integrity.

So, I dedicate my crafting with words that cannot begin to capture the depth of passion I have for what I do - and the immense changes such work has wrought in my being.

Awen /l\

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Falconwing is a novel set in a medieval fantasy world of thieves and assassins, dragons and mages, love and war. It is the tale of a half elf woman pursued by her past and finding danger, excitement and love as she tries to win back her soul.

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After the July London Underground Bombings, which I was caught up in, I made a vow at the Order of the Yew Gathering at Druid Camp. I pledged that I would seek to work with the fear people have of death and dying as well as the dead themselves. The following spring I went on a tour of the chambered tombs of England. It was the Uley Barrow, in Gloucestershire that was to have a profound impact upon my soul journey, and find my expression of my Yew Project.

Full bellied tomb sits on the edge of a field, green shoots echoing the season of re-birthing, the greening of our land. Offerings made and we sink low to the ground and humbly enter this sacred womb-tomb, this temple to the dead, the ancestors of this land. Darkness fills our lungs and we see with the touch of our hand, sink on cold, moist stone. The brilliance of the darkness allows our eyes to stare into the stone of the next world, shifting, moving, and a chamber long forgotten. Apprentice with fully attuned intuition burns the ancient scent of amber, as resin smoke fills and hangs in the air, spirits stirring and dance as it caresses stone of the chambered tomb. As my existence is pushed beyond the boundaries of my nemeton, the sound of rattle shifts our minds, open, flying free, the posture of a young man at the chamber entrance, deep and rich with honour and knowledge of death, of his duty of care to the ancestors. He is the Bone Singer, he who dwells on the edge of existence, he alone who enters the tomb, arranges bones of the dead and sings and keeps their stories alive. This is his realm; this is his existence in this world and the next.

A number of years ago I made a commitment to my gods, my ancestors, the spirits of the land, to create a natural burial ground: this was the prioritised focus through which I was to 'walk my talk', to live my religious beliefs most powerfully, and these vows I spoke out that the Order of the Yew would witness my intention.

In June 2006, Sun Rising Natural Burial Ground opened. On the northern edge of the Cotswolds, it lies between Stratford upon Avon and Banbury, 10 miles east of the Rollright Stones, a mile or two from the Civil War battlegrounds of Edge Hill, and under the now ethereal gaze of the ancient Red Horse that looks out over the south Warwickshire plains. 16 acres of poor quality agricultural land, of low ecological diversity, the meadow was a perfect location, with exceptional views and such a rich history. Slowly, in keeping with the natural cycles of the gods, we are planting native trees and sowing wildflowers, gently transforming this place into what will be, for our descendents, not just a memorial to the dead, but a beautiful haven for the wild, a nature reserve.

Caring for the dead is such a natural part of my soul's being. With each new burial, with every funeral, as I sit to sing at the graveside, sharing the songs of the meadow, the site naturally feels more and more to be utterly sacred. It is such a perfect expression of my Druidry.

Continuing to work with this site, perhaps starting another, I continue to hold this as work dedicated to my gods, our ancestors, our people, the land that has nourished us, soul deep for these long millennia. It is an honour to have this intention witnessed by the Order.

Knowing what to write or how to start feels difficult.

My Lady, the goddess who sings my soul's song, has so many means of expression that are often hidden and/or challenging. I have just begun to walk with her, constantly aware and reminded of how little I understand or know her. As a power of nature, her call is still too strong and wild for me walk with in the intimate, deep relationship my soul craves. Slowly, slowly, I will find a way to walk closer to her. Yet my understanding of her, as an Ancestral god, allowed me to find a level of empathy I could work with.

The commitment and offering I made to my Lady and the Ancestors of the Craft was to serve Her and the Craft as a medicinal herbalist. To offer the time and energy it would take to learn, to find relationship with the green people of this land and a few others from other lands and to honour the ancestors and the songs of the green folk. To honour the path some many of the ancestors walked before of healing and teaching relationships.

In a practical sense, right now I am working on a four year BSc at the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine and have just completed my first year. It's been hugely rewarding already as well as more work than I could have imagined. But the degree feels like just the first step and this commitment and page will no doubt change as time passes.