While teaching my Druid Grove – The Circle of Stone – about the Celtic
Feasts/Festivals, our Gwyl Awst/Lughnasadh ritual was in the works.
During Calan Mai/Beltaine we set our intent for our Tribe, at
Alban Heruin/Litha we nourished our intent, for Gwyl Awst/Lughnasadh
we reaffirmed our intent and married with the land as a tribute
to Celtic path workings of long
ago.

According to Alex Kondratiev, the Reaffirmation of the Tribe belongs
to Land Goddess and the God of the Tribe with tribute to the God Lugh. A interchange of both Irish and Welsh mythology plays a
hand in the Tribal order.

The Irish Story tells of Lugh who is born during a crucial time of conflict between the Tuatha De Danaan who are Tribe and the Formorain who are Land. Both Tribes are at war for the Land, the Formorain who are the death of crops while the Tuatha De Danaan
are fighting to end the murderous outrage. Lugh is born of both bloodlines to cease this war so the Tribe may survive and cohabit with the Land. Queen Taltiu of the Fir Bolg is in retrospect the Goddess who lays down her life in the fields and sheds her blood in order for the Tribe to survive.

In Welsh mythology the Land Goddess must give up her Consort the
Maponos to unite with the God of the Tribe who is actually the
God himself only for the Maponos to win her back. In both stories
there is also Resolution to made to resolve conflicts between
the Tribe and Land. There are stories of sacrifice of both God
and Goddess to sustain the Tribal relations with the Land. These
stories have been with us through the ages, only to be retold
time and time again during the turning of the wheel.

The RDNA states in the Green Book of Meditations that the Reaffirmation
of the Tribe should be preformed during Calan Gaeaf/Samhain during
the time of New Year and New Beginnings. Perhaps so, however I
feel it is more fitting to reunite the Tribe during the time of Gwyl Awst/Lughnasadh because the mythological stories fall in line with the festival itself as well as the energies of the Land and Universe.

In today’s society we have lost touch reuniting the Tribe with
the Land at harvest time. We shop at the Farmer’s Market and think
oh how wonderful fresh vegetables, yet not a thought goes into
why or how we came about agricultural crops being such an important
part in our lives or its Celtic roots for survival and how it transposed itself to America throughout the ages. Many people think fruits and vegetables come from the supermarket, they haven’t a clue they actually grown on farms and orchids (Land). In our modern world we fail to reunite with our families during this time of plenty; we wait until Thanksgiving when society gives
the Land its due through the slaughter of animals or during the
Alban Arthuran season of excessive over-indulging of non-nutritional
food/drink, conventional gift exchange and excessive travel, thus
causing more stress which creates feudal warfare within the structure
of the family unit, while ignoring the needs of the Land and Self/Tribe.

As this is a time of connecting with others, establishing new
contracts and relationships, ensuring new projects will be in
the works and pushed ahead, this is the moment for the Reaffirmation
of the Tribe to resolve issues with the Land (as stated above)
in order to move forward, however, it is not only the Land that
needs resolving, we ourselves need to come to a State of Resolution
in our lives, with our families, friends, co-workers, neighbors,
community, nation and world as well as our internal selves. This
is the climax before the descent into our newness and new lives.
The time is now to prepare cynhaeaf (before winter) to release
what is holding us back so we may move forward while harvesting
our seeds that we have planted to sustain us for the long journey
ahead into darkness, because all we will have in the end is what
matters the most – the Land and each other (Tribe).

Resources:
Green Book of Meditations, http://orgs.carleton.edu/Druids/ARDA2/ARDA2part6-7.pdf
The Apple Branch, Kondratiev, Alexei, Kensington Publishing Co., 2003

Whenever
the wind is upon your face you can feel the Gods,
Wherever a stream babbles by you can hear the Gods,
Wheresoever the fox trots along you can see the Gods.
In a lover’s face you can know the Gods,
In a baby’s cry you can nurture the Gods,
In a child’s trust you can experience the Gods,
In your dreams and meditations you can be the Gods.

Many of the stories passed down in Scotland through folklore tell tales
of whisky, which in the Gaelic language is the ‘water of life’
but some old legends told stories of the Heather Mead and its
magic properties. Here is one version…

More than a thousand years ago, even the drinks that quenched the thirsts of the inhabitants of Scotland carried some strange reputations. One such drink was known as “The Heather Mead”. The tales of its powers reached as far as England and Wales, Old Ireland and even as far as France. Its mystery was its recipe, for only the Pictish people knew it and so the secret was theirs alone.

Living in and around the hills, and sometimes in the caves around  the coasts of Scotland, the Picts had a

fondness for artwork. Wherever they happened to stay, they would tap out their intricate and beautiful patterns on stones available to that particular area of land. The Heather Mead, it was said, gave the Pictish people amazing powers of vision, and enhanced their eyesight so well, that they could even spend hours in the darkest of caves drawing
on the walls without so much as the light from a candle.

Scotland, in these old times, had different Kings for each area, and one of them King James the first, was told of the powers of the Heather Mead, but King James lived to regret ever having heard of the mead after a strange encounter with the Picts.

You see, it was the habit of King James to dress himself in simple clothes and leave his castle to journey amongst the ordinary folk, where no one would recognise him. This was a good way for him to see how his people were faring and to enjoy the beauty of the hills and glens without the pomp and ceremony of day-to-day royal life.

One summer, June radiated warmth and so demanded a slower pace of trot from all who rode on horseback that splendid day. King James, at peace with the world, slid down from his horse and walked into the entrance of a huge forest in search of water. Horse and master, both hot and thirsty, welcomed the cool embrace from the
shadows of the trees as they entered the forest.

They walked deeper and deeper into the pines, listening for the sound of water gushing, but hearing none. After an hour, the King decided to rest awhile and sat down with his back against an ancient Caledonian pine, whilst his horse nibbled at the sweet young grass growing around the roots of the tree. The King closed his eyes and drew in a long contented breath, “Wonderful”, he
said, “the smell of fresh pine and moss. We’ll just take ten minutes rest, horse.”

But the ten minutes turned into hours and the King awoke to the sound of the owls calling one another. His faithful horse stood nearby. The King jumped up at once. “Good heavens!”, he cried, “I wonder how long I’ve been here. We must hurry on horse, for you must be as thirsty as I and then we must return to the castle, for they are bound to be already searching for us.”

He looked around for a clear way out of the forest, but it was that time of night in summer, when the moon and the sun seem to meet in the sky, and the darkness is not of the pitch kind, so it was light enough to see, but dark enough to alter colour and cause confusion. Not sure where he was going, the King walked carefully through the trees, leading his horse. A little while later, he could smell something sweet on the cool air. He stopped. The smell encouraged his thirst as it drifted passed his nostrils followed by the faint aroma of wood smoke.

“Ah. God surely smiles upon us. There must be people ahead, perhaps they will lead me on my way,” he said. He followed the odour through the trees to a clearing which housed a campsite containing half a dozed stocky, red headed bearded men, who sat round the glowing embers of pine cones. As the sparks sprang into the air from beneath a cauldron placed over the fire, the King called to them, “Good men, can you help me, for I find myself lost in this place?”

The men looked from one to another, and as the King ventured forward, one of them rose. “You may leave that way”, he said,
pointing over the King’s shoulder.

“I don’t think so, my man. For I have just come from that
direction. May I ask what your cauldron contains, for it smells
delicious?” the King said as he peered into the cauldron.

The man, who was standing, put his hand on the King’s chest. “Go
no further stranger, this is not of your business,” he said firmly.

The King, unaccustomed to being spoken to in this manner, grabbed the man’s hand and flung it from his chest saying, “Unhand
me, Sir! Those who have dared touch my person has suffered greatly for it.”

The man’s eyes opened in wide surprise and first he stared directly at King James; then proceeded to walk around him as though inspecting him in some way. He said, “You look just like flesh and blood to me.” He then burst into laughter joined by his companions.

The King was furious. He immediately unhooked his cloak to reveal
his royal clothes. “I don’t know who you are, or where you come
from, for I do not recognize your accent, but by my command you will do my bidding, for I am King of all Scotland, fill my cup immediately, Sir, so that I might be on my way. I will not be the subject of your amusement nor anyone else’s. Call your men to be silent!” the King demanded.

The men fell silent and rose to stand beside their leader. Their leader held them back. “We have no fight with you, Sir, whoever you many be, nor do we intend to do you harm, ” he said, taking a cup from one of the men. He filled the cup from the cauldron. “Here, drink this, with our good will, for we have no need of your commands.”

The King, drinking from the cup, could not hide his satisfaction,
the drink was quite the best he had ever tasted, and slipped down
his throat like honey.

The men, smiling at the King’s pleasure, sat once more at the fire as the King finished his cup. Handing the cup back to the leader, he asked, ”  Pray tell me, what is this sweet nectar, for I have never tasted such a beverage?”

The leader shook his head and smiled, “This is Heather Mead. You’ve heard of it?”

It was then that the King realised he was in the company of Picts and remembered all the stories he had heard of the power of the heather honey mead, and he made his mind up there and then to obtain the recipe from them.

He offered them gold to tell their secret, and they laughed at that and pulled out pouches full of it. He offered them jewels and they opened their garments and showed him necklaces more beautifully crafted than some of his own crown jewels. No matter what he offered, they declined. Finally, frustrated he commanded that they tell their secret, and this made them laugh all the more.

Furious, King James withdrew a whistle from his pocket, and blew a shrill note upon it. Before the Picts had stopped laughing, the King’ s men appeared from no-where, each grabbed a man and held a dirk to his throat.

The King looked to their leader. “Bring this one to my castle, the rest may leave in a while,” he instructed his men. “You will tell your people, I will have the recipe for the Heather Mead, or your leader will not be returned to you.”

With that, the King mounted his horse and followed his men back to his castle, dragging the Pictish leader behind his horse.

Only two nights later, the King woke up to what he thought was an earthquake. His bed was shaking and rocks were falling about the castle. He ran down the tower stairs to the great hall, avoiding falling blocks of stone. When he looked out of the open window to the moat below, he could see in the dim, cloudy night, hundreds of men passing stone after stone to each other. He called for his guards, and a sleepy half dressed sentry appeared, who could not account for his sleepiness. The King suddenly remembered the prisoner in his dungeon. “It’s them!”, he cried. “The Picts.”

He ran down staircase after staircase until he reached where the dungeons were housed, as the castle crumbled above. When he reached the cells, no guard could be seen and the Pictish prisoner’s door lay slightly ajar. On the King’s touch, it flew open and as soon as the King entered the cell, the thunderous noise of the falling rocks ceased and all fell silent. He stopped in his tracks at the sight before him.

A calmness filled the room, the ruffian Pict that the King had imprisoned now stood proudly in green and golden garments, unshackled. A crown upon the head of red curly hair reflected gold around the Pictish King’s face, and brightened the normally gloomy cell. The Pictish King smiled at King James, who looked astonished. “I stand before you, Sir,” said the Pictish King, “Not like you, a King of Scotland, but King, only of my people.”

King James recovered himself. “Is it war you’ve declared?” he asked.

Once more the Pictish King smiled. “Our numbers are few, and we are a dying race, we cannot afford wars. Our culture, like our language, is ours and ours alone. We come from the ancient past. Our days are done. You are of the new age. My people have come for me and not one life will be spent. I cannot give you the recipe for the Heather Mead because it is not mine to give, it was passed to me from the ancients, connected to the natural
world, who are no longer here.”

Whilst the Pictish King spoke, the glow from his crown increased and encased him in a protective golden cocoon, and as he continued speaking, his voice began to fade so that King James could no longer hear him. His golden aura became so bright, that King James could no longer see him, but was forced to cover his own eyes.
Then, in the next instant, King James felt suddenly cold, and the cell became dark and gloomy. When King James opened his eyes, he found himself alone.

Confused and weary, the King climbed back up the dungeon stairway, but when he reached the top of the stairs, he emerged into a field where his castle had once stood! Not a brick was left. Just a piece of ground with a moat circling it, and on the other side of the moat round its outer perimeter, the Kings servants slept on the grass. The King fell to his knees in disbelief.

In the distance, the sun was rising just above Finavon Hill, the sky showed promise of a beautiful day as the King looked around him. The view was a panorama of wonder and beauty. That is why Forfar Castle was built on that particular spot. Friend and Foe could be seen approaching from any direction. The Angus Glens grace the landscape as far as the eye can see, from west to east, to join the Grampians and the Highlands of Scotland.

Suddenly the King started laughing, as he looked towards Finavon, near Aberlemno. For, in the distance he saw, what looked like an army of little ants carrying heavy burdens. Ahead of them, something new was growing up out of the horizon. It was the King’s castle, the Picts, master stone workers, were re-building it on top of Finavon Hill!

The King’s guards and servants began to wake up, and the looks on
their faces only made the King laugh more, as he pointed out to them the newly emerging castle in the distance.

Later, the King and his men journeyed to nearby Glamis castle, and the King laughed all the way, for there were castles aplenty in those days, and he felt that the Picts deserved every stone, for the Pictish King had been true to his word and not a life had been lost.

The Picts had fun in the castle new built, and when they tired of it they used the stones for their carvings, and some of them can still be seen in and around Aberlemno and Angus.

You can still see the site of old Forfar Castle, right in the middle of the town of Forfar, a tower has been erected where it used to stand. The key to its entry is kept at the newsagents in Castle Street, Forfar. You can ask to use it anytime, and see the wonderful view for yourself.

The Pictish people are no more, and they did, indeed, take the
secret of their language, their culture, and the Magic Heather Honey Mead with them, but they left us great examples of their artwork and stonework.

Source: http://www.folklegendcom/article1058.html

If you desire a spiritual connection with the animal world, but think
the experience is available only to the spiritually evolved or
gifted-don’t despair. A “familiar” is simply a living
creature having personal and spiritual meaning to you, and the
experience is available to anyone who seeks it. No need for otherworldly
experiences or altered states of consciousness. Personal awareness
and desire are key, not revelation. A gradual opening of your
mind and spirit to the animal world goes a long way toward enriching
your life and adding another level to your spiritual practice.

Many people describe enjoying a spiritual relationship with a particular
animal, but the nature of that connection differs greatly from
person to person. Some describe their familiar as a “spiritual
teacher,” while others choose words like “companion”
or “messenger.” A common misconception is that familiars
appear only in the form of animals commonly associated with magic,
such as the cat, wolf, toad, or eagle. True, these animals seem
to enjoy some measure of popularity, but there is no “rule.”
Such a belief creates a narrow perception of familiars and leaves
some spiritual folks feeling left by the wayside. Just as we are
all different, there is no “one” way to discover your
animal familiar and no “right” way to honor or experience
them.

We Are Family

If the idea of having a spiritual connection with an animal feels
foreign or strange, try thinking of animals as members of your
family. As human beings, we are mammals and already part of the
wondrous, intricate web of living creatures that roam the earth,
fill the oceans, and speckle the skies. It’s easy to lose sight
of the similarities between ourselves and other members of the
animal kingdom, especially for those of use who live and work
in large cities, separated from most animals. However, thinking
about our similarities is a great way to raise our consciousness
and feel more in touch with them.

Like different animals, individual human beings have unique natures
that guide life choices, such as the number of people we live
with or our preference for city or country living. Just as animals
are instinctively driven to live in certain environments, we also
choose “habitats” that meet our spiritual needs and
desires. These choices include the type of home we prefer as well
as what we surround ourselves with-such as art, music, and furnishings.

Moreover, like any species, we depend on one another, but the amount we
socialize differs between individuals. Some people prefer life
in highly structured social communities while others prefer more
solitary wandering. Our dietary habits also vary widely. Some
of us are carnivorous hunters, some vegetarian foragers, and yet
others a combination of both. We also show a penchant for particular
climates, some people longing for the heat and solitude of the
desert while others seek the ebb and flow of the ocean.

Think about your lifestyle choices: your home, diet, and social connections.
These things offer hints about the animals with which you share
common traits. When you start to think about familiars this way,
it becomes easier to find meaningful connections. Which animals
seem to be in your “family?”

Search the Ordinary

Most of us know someone who has an extraordinary connection to
a particular animal. Perhaps we have an aunt who collects feathers
from every bird imaginable or know a photographer with an uncanny
ability for capturing images of butterflies in flight. Although
these strong connections do occur, many people experience more
subtle connections.

Take a few minutes to think about animals you generally feel “kin”
to. Think about pets you have kept as companions and what they
brought to your life. Which did you feel particularly close to?
How did they come to you? Were they orphaned? A gift from a special
person? Did you have an instant love affair with them? Did they
arrive unannounced at your home and refuse to leave?

You can also take a walk through the rooms of your home or flip through
your photo albums. Does one particular animal reappear often?
You might also look at your favorite movies and books. Do any
of them feature a particular animal character? Many connections
between humans and animals are subconscious until effort is made
to bring them out.

Think in Groups

If you are still struggling to find an animal you relate to, try
to find a category of animal that makes “psychic sense”
to you. Consider the various groupings of animals and their most
fundamental characteristics, and think about them in relation
to spiritual principles of air, fire, water, and earth.

Mammals

This is the warm-blooded group of animals humans belong to. We
give birth to live young and nourish them with our own milk. Most
mammals live in groups and demonstrate quite elaborate social
organization-much like us!

Spiritual Dimensions: Mammals are typically associated with earth qualities, but, depending on their habitat and individual characteristics, may also embody other aspects.

Reptiles

The cold-blooded group of lung-breathing animals has protective,
scaled skin and are often very colorful. Many reptiles shed their
skin, or re-grow body parts lost to injury or assault. Cold-bloodedness,
normally given a “bad rap,” embodies the nature of the
adaptive, and suggests responsiveness to environmental changes.
Reptiles lay eggs and are not particularly doting parents.

Examples: Lizards, turtles, snakes, crocodiles, and alligators.

Spiritual Dimensions: Depending on the individual animal, reptiles may represent earth or fire. Their changing and adaptive natures reflect spiritual growth and healing.

Birds

These egg layers feature feathers and lightweight, hollow bones.
They have no teeth and high metabolisms-eating a tremendous amount
of food and producing much heat. They are known for having beautiful
voices and their unique ability to “speak.” Complex
behavior is found in migration patterns, courtship, and incubation
behavior. Birds are often associated with oracles and predicting
the future.

Examples: Songbirds, seabirds, carrion eaters, birds of prey, woodpeckers.

Spiritual Dimensions: Birds belong in the realm of air, the intellectual and realm of the spirit.

Amphibians

The word itself means “double life.” Amphibians have
cool skin that is usually slippery, making them hard to catch!
They have four limbs and no scales. They have toxins in their
skins, and are often brightly colored.

Examples: Salamanders, newts, toads, frogs, and caecilians.

Spiritual Dimensions: Creatures of both earth and water, these animals are highly adaptive, and embody many of both characteristics.

Fish

These egg-laying residents of water do not breathe air. They may
inhabit either fresh or salt water. Some make their homes close
to the surface while others exist in the darkness of the ocean’s
floor.

Spiritual Dimensions: Water. Realm of the emotional, the subconscious,
and the instinctive.

Insects

The collective mass of insects on our planet outweighs the mass
of all other species combined. These creatures have no backbone,
and many-such as the bee and the ant-demonstrate elaborate social
organization. They are also known for their ability to undergo
incredibly dramatic metamorphoses.

Spiritual Dimensions: Because insects are found in almost every
corner of the planet, they may be associated with any of the elements.
A careful look at their individual characteristics will offer
hints about their spiritual natures.

Animal Aversion

Are you someone who hates to get animal hair on your clothes?
Never had a pet or enjoyed bird watching? Do you feel nervous
around dogs and cats? Don’t assume this means that you are unlikely
to have a familiar! Quite the opposite, in fact. Often, we fear
or avoid those things we repress in ourselves or those things
we most desire, but are unable to accept. Examine your fears,
aversions, and dislikes of animals; you may be surprised what
you find there and how much you can learn about yourself!

Honoring Your Familiar at the Altar

There are many ways to increase your connections with the animal
world, and one of them is to include them on your altar as part
of your everyday spiritual practices. Again, there is no right
or wrong way to do this. It is simply a way to turn your mind
and spirit to the ways of the natural world and become more attuned
to the animal kingdom. If after thinking about animal familiars
you feel an attraction to a particular animal, you might find
some pictures or representations of them to add to your altar
or your home. Such items might include statures, artwork, sheep’s
wool, feathers, turtle shells, birds’ nests, or snakeskins. You
might also want to find poems or songs about the animal, and commit
them to memory. If possible, find recordings of the animals’ sounds
and listen to them, noting the emotions that their noises evoke.

Being connected to the animal kingdom happens through conscious intent,
meditation, and desire. There are so many things animals can teach
us when we have eyes to see and ears to listen them. An early
step to exploring spiritual relationships with animals is simply
raising your awareness about them. Going to the library on a quiet
Saturday afternoon and searching for folktales and information
about specific animals is a wonderful way to increase sensitivity
and enjoy an emerging sense of oneness with creatures of the animal
kingdom.

(From Llewellyn’s 2008 Magical Almanac)
Title Image from The Well Worn Path Divination Deck. Like it? Buy deck here

There is nothing more beautiful than to see and experience the chakra
system of another person. Because you go beyond looking at him
or her with your eyes, you open all of your senses to experience
this person’s inner light and potential at every level.
Amazingly, everyone can see the chakras, however we just don’t
know what we are looking for. Being told that chakras are spinning
vortexes of light that can be seen clairvoyantly emanating from
specific points in our bodies, puts them out of reach for most
of us to imagine seeing. Although the chakras are very mystical,
they are also the grounding of our everyday lives.

Each of the seven chakras corresponds to specific emotions, imagery and function in its role as an energy gateway in our body. These chakra descriptions may help you get to “see” each one a little better.

[Editor’s note: I am putting the descriptions of the Chakras in their proper
colours…]

Chakra One — Being Real

The first chakra is like a tree. It is powerful and majestic, solid and unmoving, alive and thriving, simple and loving. Its form is the embodiment of intelligence and function.

To see your first chakra, look at everything that is pragmatic, simple and solid. Start with your body. How does it feel? Where is it strong, weak or sick? What illnesses has it had over your lifetime? Look at your body in a mirror; do you look vibrant, tired, or angry?

Then look at everything in your life that is solid. These include anything you could bump into at any given moment; your house, your car, family members, co-workers, the things that are objects of your affection, the things you are sentimental about, the food you eat, etc.

Look at how all the physical objects in your life (including you) are working, and/or not working and you can get a snapshot how your first chakra is functioning. Imagine a tree and its many personalities: tall and strong, stunted, diseased, home to many others, solitary, and so on. What kind of tree is your first chakra?

Chakra Two — Sensational Life

In the East it is believed that everything is so directly connected and in relationship to everything else that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can trigger a hurricane on the other side of the planet. It is in the second chakra that you can feel both the butterfly flapping and the hurricane spinning and know that they both influence your life.

Your second chakra is your ability to let the world in through all your senses by feeling how it flows to and through you. These sensations put you in contact with the world. How are you aware of all the people, places and things in your life? How do they touch you and how do you feel when they do? How aware are you of vibration, light, sound, other people intensions, your desires and passions?

Secondary aspects of sensation are their accompanying emotions. A sensation is the raw unit of feeling. Emotions are feelings coming to consciousness from those sensations and are triggers that move you to turn either inward or outward. Notice how much your sensations drive your emotional behavior in both positive and negative directions. This flapping and whirling is a picture of your second chakra.

Chakra Three — Loving Your Life

To gaze upon a person who is enthusiastically being themselves is to see the sun shining through every pore of their body and mind. Look at everything in your life that makes you unique in the world and you will see your third chakra. You are a one-and-only. Your third chakra is your power to take action on your deepest desires that fill you with passion and joy and use your willpower to let go of unhealthy obsessions that drain your life force. Your life purpose is directly related to your uniqueness. Albert Einstein said, “It is only to the individual that a soul is given.”

Look at how often you freely allow yourself to be yourself, and relax and enjoy that person. How often do you suppress your desires and the unique person you were born to be so that you might conform in some way to external pressures? Once you recognize this aspect of yourself, you are seeing your third chakra.

Chakra Four — Relationships

The fourth chakra is the balance point in the system of the seven chakras. It is the secret that Robert Frost spoke of that “sits in the center and knows.” It loves you, and everyone else, just as you are, unconditionally, in the present moment. It is the heart, the healer of all wounds.

When your heart is open you live in the present moment in honesty and integrity, even if it means being vulnerable at times. Look at the relationships you have with yourself and others in your life, and notice how forgiving and compassionate you are in each relationship.

How easily do you find balance and deep enjoyment in these relationships? When your heart is closed, you live in the past or the future, seeing only what you don’t forgive in another or in yourself. When you look at your ability to “stand in the fire with another and not shrink back,” as Oriah Mountain Dreamer says, you see the radiance of your fourth chakra.

Chakra Five — Expressing Who You Really Are

The fifth chakra is the center of your creative self-expression. It is your willingness to speak the truth of your deepest feelings and highest aspirations and say, “Yes,” and mean it, and “No,” and mean it. To experience an open fifth chakra is to feel the subtle vibration of human expression that manifests itself in every one of your thoughts, feelings and actions. You are a master artist and your life is the canvas you work on
every day.

Notice how you communicate your inner world of subtle feelings and awareness out into the world. In the fifth chakra you make the really tough choice of speaking your inner truth even when it goes against who you have been told you are supposed to be. You are fearless and call your power and gifts out for all to see, and you simultaneously call your weakness and addictions out so that they lose their power over you.

Becoming aware that you are a creation machine allows you to realize that it takes no less energy to create a thrilling life of joy than it does to create a frustrating life of pain and suffering. Knowing that life is a choice guides you to begin to live the spiritual truth, “ask you shall receive,” and if you don’t ask or assume you don’t deserve it, that, too, you shall receive. Watch your inner artist paint the canvas of your life to see your fifth chakra. Is your artist painting from a blank canvas each day creating life fresh, or is he or she trying to fix yesterday’s painting?

Chakra Six — Seeing Your Place

The sixth chakra, also known as the mind’s eye or third eye, is the center of clairvoyant sight where spiritual guidance flashes into awareness. To gaze upon an open sixth chakra is to see the flash of intuition like a twinkling star in the night sky that brings clarity and meaning to your life and your place
in it.

See yourself from the eagle’s view 20,000 feet above and you will be seeing from the sixth chakra perspective. Notice how your unique talents and skills support and radiate outward in every direction. Do you see any environments you have chosen where you don’t belong?

The third chakra reveals to you your own individuality and uniqueness; in the sixth chakra you see how that uniqueness impacts the world around you. Are you a mother, a leader, an artist, a yogi, or all of the above? In the sixth chakra you see from a higher perspective how you fit into the world and how important your contribution
to the world truly is.

Chakra Seven — Knowing That Anything is Possible

The seventh chakra is the crown of the auric system. When it is
open, it brings conscious awareness of the infinite system of
abundance that we are all embedded in. Imagination, mystery and
the ability to give meaning to the infinite are the gifts of the
seventh chakra. A closed seventh chakra brings limitation in some
form and pessimism into our lives.

Consider your relationship with infinite possibility. Do you embrace all people, religions and walks of life? Do you question how things have always been done to explore new ways of doing things or are you stuck and limited in your life and vision?

In the seventh chakra, imagination, consciousness and genius live hand-in-hand in the brilliance of that aspect of our minds opening to infinite possibility and thought. Imagine your brilliance as the sunlight dancing on the ocean’s endless horizon and you will see your seventh chakra.

Rhys Thomas is the founder of the Rhys Thomas Healer Training Programs at the Solstice
Healing Arts Center in Medway MA. He is a certified energy medicine practitioner, professional speaker, ordained minister, second degree black belt, crystal bowl healer, intuitive and soul reader. He can be reached at (508) 740-3038 or visit http://www.rhysthomashealing.com

Whenever
the wind is upon your face you can feel the Gods,
Wherever a stream babbles by you can hear the Gods,
Wheresoever the fox trots along you can see the Gods.
In a lover’s face you can know the Gods,
In a baby’s cry you can nurture the Gods,
In a child’s trust you can experience the Gods,
In your dreams and meditations you can be the Gods.

Many of the stories passed down in Scotland through folklore tell tales
of whisky, which in the Gaelic language is the ‘water of life’
but some old legends told stories of the Heather Mead and its
magic properties. Here is one version…

More than a thousand years ago, even the drinks that quenched the thirsts of the inhabitants of Scotland carried some strange reputations. One such drink was known as “The Heather Mead”. The tales of its powers reached as far as England and Wales, Old Ireland and even as far as France. Its mystery was its recipe, for only the Pictish people knew it and so the secret was theirs alone.

Living in and around the hills, and sometimes in the caves around the coasts of Scotland, the Picts had a fondness for artwork. Wherever they happened to stay, they would tap out their intricate and beautiful patterns on stones available to that particular area of land. The Heather Mead, it was said, gave the Pictish people amazing powers of vision, and enhanced their eyesight so well, that they could even spend hours in the darkest of caves drawing on the walls without so much as the light from a candle.

Scotland, in these old times, had different Kings for each area, and one of them King James the first, was told of the powers of the Heather Mead, but King James lived to regret ever having heard of the mead after a strange encounter with the Picts.

You see, it was the habit of King James to dress himself in simple clothes and leave his castle to journey amongst the ordinary folk, where no one would recognise him. This was a good way for him to see how his people were faring and to enjoy the beauty of the hills and glens without the pomp and ceremony of day-to-day royal life.

One summer, June radiated warmth and so demanded a slower pace of trot from all who rode on horseback that splendid day. King James, at peace with the world, slid down from his horse and walked into the entrance of a huge forest in search of water. Horse and master, both hot and thirsty, welcomed the cool embrace from the
shadows of the trees as they entered the forest.

They walked deeper and deeper into the pines, listening for the sound of water gushing, but hearing none. After an hour, the King decided to rest awhile and sat down with his back against an ancient Caledonian pine, whilst his horse nibbled at the sweet young grass growing around the roots of the tree. The King closed his eyes and drew in a long contented breath, “Wonderful”, he said, “the smell of fresh pine and moss. We’ll just take
ten minutes rest, horse.”

But the ten minutes turned into hours and the King awoke to the sound of the owls calling one another. His faithful horse stood nearby. The King jumped up at once. “Good heavens!”, he cried, “I wonder how long I’ve been here. We must hurry on horse, for you must be as thirsty as I and then we must return to the castle, for they are bound to be already searching for us.”

He looked around for a clear way out of the forest, but it was that time of night in summer, when the moon and the sun seem to meet in the sky, and the darkness is not of the pitch kind, so it was light enough to see, but dark enough to alter colour and cause confusion. Not sure where he was going, the King walked carefully through the trees, leading his horse. A little while later, he could smell something sweet on the cool air. He stopped. The smell encouraged his thirst as it drifted passed his nostrils followed by the faint aroma of wood smoke.

“Ah. God surely smiles upon us. There must be people ahead, perhaps they will lead me on my way,” he said. He followed the odour through the trees to a clearing which housed a campsite containing half a dozed stocky, red headed bearded men, who sat round the glowing embers of pine cones. As the sparks sprang into the air from beneath a cauldron placed over the fire, the King called to them, “Good men, can you help me, for I find myself lost in this place?”

The men looked from one to another, and as the King ventured forward, one of them rose. “You may leave that way”, he said,
pointing over the King’s shoulder.

“I don’t think so, my man. For I have just come from that
direction. May I ask what your cauldron contains, for it smells
delicious?” the King said as he peered into the cauldron.

The man, who was standing, put his hand on the King’s chest. “Go no further stranger, this is not of your business,” he said
firmly.

The King, unaccustomed to being spoken to in this manner, grabbed the man’s hand and flung it from his chest saying, “Unhand me, Sir! Those who have dared touch my person has suffered greatly for it.”

The man’s eyes opened in wide surprise and first he stared directly at King James; then proceeded to walk around him as though inspecting him in some way. He said, “You look just like flesh and blood to me.” He then burst into laughter joined by his companions.

The King was furious. He immediately unhooked his cloak to reveal
his royal clothes. “I don’t know who you are, or where you come
from, for I do not recognize your accent, but by my command you will do my bidding, for I am King of all Scotland, fill my cup immediately, Sir, so that I might be on my way. I will not be the subject of your amusement nor anyone else’s. Call your men to be silent!” the King demanded.

The men fell silent and rose to stand beside their leader. Their leader held them back. “We have no fight with you, Sir, whoever you many be, nor do we intend to do you harm, ” he said, taking a cup from one of the men. He filled the cup from the cauldron. “Here, drink this, with our good will, for we have no need of your commands.”

The King, drinking from the cup, could not hide his satisfaction,
the drink was quite the best he had ever tasted, and slipped down
his throat like honey.

The men, smiling at the King’s pleasure, sat once more at the
fire as the King finished his cup. Handing the cup back to the leader, he  asked, ” Pray tell me, what is this sweet nectar, for I have never tasted such a beverage?”

The leader shook his head and smiled, “This is Heather Mead. You’ve heard of it?”

It was then that the King realised he was in the company of Picts and remembered all the stories he had heard of the power of the heather honey mead, and he made his mind up there and then to obtain the recipe from them.

He offered them gold to tell their secret, and they laughed at that and pulled out pouches full of it. He offered them jewels and they opened their garments and showed him necklaces more beautifully crafted than some of his own crown jewels. No matter what he offered, they declined. Finally, frustrated he commanded that they tell their secret, and this made them laugh all the more.

Furious, King James withdrew a whistle from his pocket, and blew a shrill note upon it. Before the Picts had stopped laughing, the King’ s men appeared from no-where, each grabbed a man and held a dirk to his throat.

The King looked to their leader. “Bring this one to my castle, the rest may leave in a while,” he instructed his men. “You will tell your people, I will have the recipe for the Heather Mead, or your leader will not be returned to you.”

With that, the King mounted his horse and followed his men back to his castle, dragging the Pictish leader behind his horse.

Only two nights later, the King woke up to what he thought was an earthquake. His bed was shaking and rocks were falling about the castle. He ran down the tower stairs to the great hall, avoiding falling blocks of stone. When he looked out of the open window to the moat below, he could see in the dim, cloudy night, hundreds of men passing stone after stone to each other. He called for his guards, and a sleepy half dressed sentry appeared, who could not account for his sleepiness. The King suddenly remembered the prisoner in his dungeon. “It’s them!”, he cried. “The Picts.”

He ran down staircase after staircase until he reached where the dungeons were housed, as the castle crumbled above. When he reached the cells, no guard could be seen and the Pictish prisoner’s door lay slightly ajar. On the King’s touch, it flew open and as soon as the King entered the cell, the thunderous noise of the falling rocks ceased and all fell silent. He stopped in his tracks at the sight before him.

A calmness filled the room, the ruffian Pict that the King had imprisoned now stood proudly in green and golden garments, unshackled. A crown upon the head of red curly hair reflected gold around the Pictish King’s face, and brightened the normally gloomy cell. The Pictish King smiled at King James, who looked astonished. “I stand before you, Sir,” said the Pictish King, “Not like you, a King of Scotland, but King, only of my people.”

King James recovered himself. “Is it war you’ve declared?” he asked.

Once more the Pictish King smiled. “Our numbers are few, and we are a dying race, we cannot afford wars. Our culture, like our language, is ours and ours alone. We come from the ancient past. Our days are done. You are of the new age. My people have come for me and not one life will be spent. I cannot give you the recipe for the Heather Mead because it is not mine to give, it was passed to me from the ancients, connected to the natural
world, who are no longer here.”

Whilst the Pictish King spoke, the glow from his crown increased and encased him in a protective golden cocoon, and as he continued speaking, his voice began to fade so that King James could no longer hear him. His golden aura became so bright, that King James could no longer see him, but was forced to cover his own eyes. Then, in the next instant, King James felt suddenly cold, and the cell became dark and gloomy. When King James opened his eyes, he found himself alone.

Confused and weary, the King climbed back up the dungeon stairway, but when he reached the top of the stairs, he emerged into a field where his castle had once stood! Not a brick was left. Just a piece of ground with a moat circling it, and on the other side of the moat round its outer perimeter, the Kings servants slept on the grass. The King fell to his knees in disbelief.

In the distance, the sun was rising just above Finavon Hill, the sky showed promise of a beautiful day as the King looked around him. The view was a panorama of wonder and beauty. That is why Forfar Castle was built on that particular spot. Friend and Foe could be seen approaching from any direction. The Angus Glens grace the landscape as far as the eye can see, from west to east, to join the Grampians and the Highlands of Scotland.

Suddenly the King started laughing, as he looked towards Finavon, near Aberlemno. For, in the distance he saw, what looked like an army of little ants carrying heavy burdens. Ahead of them, something new was growing up out of the horizon. It was the King’s castle, the Picts, master stone workers, were re-building it on top of Finavon Hill!

The King’s guards and servants began to wake up, and the looks on their faces only made the King laug

h more, as he pointed out to them the newly emerging castle in the distance.

Later, the King and his men journeyed to nearby Glamis castle,
and the King laughed all the way, for there were castles aplenty
in those days, and he felt that the Picts deserved every stone,
for the Pictish King had been true to his word and not a life
had been lost.

The Picts had fun in the castle new built, and when they tired of it they used the stones for their carvings, and some of them can still be seen in and around Aberlemno and Angus.

You can still see the site of old Forfar Castle, right in the middle of the town of Forfar, a tower has been erected where it used to stand. The key to its entry is kept at the newsagents in Castle Street, Forfar. You can ask to use it anytime, and see the wonderful view for yourself.

The Pictish people are no more, and they did, indeed, take the
secret of their language, their culture, and the Magic Heather Honey Mead with them  , but they left us grea  t examples of their artwork and stonework.

Source: http://www.folklegendcom/article1058.html

If you desire a spiritual connection with the animal world, but think the experience is available only to the spiritually evolved or gifted-don’t despair. A “familiar” is simply a living creature having personal and spiritual meaning to you, and the experience is available to anyone who seeks it. No need for otherworldly experiences or altered states of consciousness. Personal awareness and desire are key, not revelation. A gradual opening of your mind and spirit to the animal world goes a long way toward enriching your life and adding another level to your spiritual practice.

Many people describe enjoying a spiritual relationship with a particular animal, but the nature of that connection differs greatly from person to person. Some describe their familiar as a “spiritual teacher,” while others choose words like “companion” or “messenger.” A common misconception is that familiars appear only in the form of animals commonly associated with magic, such as the cat, wolf, toad, or eagle. True, these animals seem
to enjoy some measure of popularity, but there is no “rule.” Such a belief creates a narrow perception of familiars and leaves some spiritual folks feeling left by the wayside. Just as we are all different, there is no “one” way to discover your animal familiar and no “right” way to honor or experience
them.

We Are Family

If the idea of having a spiritual connection with an animal feels foreign or strange, try thinking of animals as members of your family. As human beings, we are mammals and already part of the wondrous, intricate web of living creatures that roam the earth, fill the oceans, and speckle the skies. It’s easy to lose sight of the similarities between ourselves and other members of the animal kingdom, especially for those of use who live and work in large cities, separated from most animals. However, thinking about our similarities is a great way to raise our consciousness and feel more in touch with them.

Like different animals, individual human beings have unique natures that guide life choices, such as the number of people we live with or our preference for city or country living. Just as animals are instinctively driven to live in certain environments, we also choose “habitats” that meet our spiritual needs and desires. These choices include the type of home we prefer as well as what we surround ourselves with-such as art, music, and furnishings.

Moreover, like any species, we depend on one another, but the amount we
socialize differs between individuals. Some people prefer life in highly structured social communities while others prefer more solitary wandering. Our dietary habits also vary widely. Some of us are carnivorous hunters, some vegetarian foragers, and yet others a combination of both. We also show a penchant for particular climates, some people longing for the heat and solitude of the desert while others seek the ebb and flow of the ocean.

Think about your lifestyle choices: your home, diet, and social connections.
These things offer hints about the animals with which you share common traits. When you start to think about familiars this way, it becomes easier to find meaningful connections. Which animals seem to be in your “family?”

Search the Ordinary

Most of us know someone who has an extraordinary connection to a particular animal. Perhaps we have an aunt who collects feathers from every bird imaginable or know a photographer with an uncanny ability for capturing images of butterflies in flight. Although these strong connections do occur, many people experience more subtle connections.

Take a few minutes to think about animals you generally feel “kin” to. Think about pets you have kept as companions and what they brought to your life. Which did you feel particularly close to? How did they come to you? Were they orphaned? A gift from a special person? Did you have an instant love affair with them? Did they arrive unannounced at your home and refuse to leave?

You can also take a walk through the rooms of your home or flip through your photo albums. Does one particular animal reappear often? You might also look at your favorite movies and books. Do any of them feature a particular animal character? Many connections between humans and animals are subconscious until effort is made to bring them out.

Think in Groups

If you are still struggling to find an animal you relate to, try to find a category of animal that makes “psychic sense” to you. Consider the various groupings of animals and their most fundamental characteristics, and think about them in relation to spiritual principles of air, fire, water, and earth.

Mammals

This is the warm-blooded group of animals humans belong to. We give birth to live young and nourish them with our own milk. Most mammals live in groups and demonstrate quite elaborate social organization-much like us!

Spiritual Dimensions: Mammals are typically associated with earth qualities, but, depending on their habitat and individual characteristics, may also embody other aspects.

Reptiles

The cold-blooded group of lung-breathing animals has protective, scaled skin and are often very colorful. Many reptiles shed their skin, or re-grow body parts lost to injury or assault. Cold-bloodedness, normally given a “bad rap,” embodies the nature of the adaptive, and suggests responsiveness to environmental changes. Reptiles lay eggs and are not particularly doting parents.

Examples: Lizards, turtles, snakes, crocodiles, and alligators.

Spiritual Dimensions: Depending on the individual animal, reptiles may represent earth or fire. Their changing and adaptive natures reflect spiritual growth and healing.

Birds

These egg layers feature feathers and lightweight, hollow bones. They have no teeth and high metabolisms-eating a tremendous amount of food and producing much heat. They are known for having beautiful voices and their unique ability to “speak.” Complex behavior is found in migration patterns, courtship, and incubation behavior. Birds are often associated with oracles and predicting the future.

Examples: Songbirds, seabirds, carrion eaters, birds of prey, woodpeckers.

Spiritual Dimensions: Birds belong in the realm of air, the intellectual and realm of the spirit.

Amphibians

The word itself means “double life.” Amphibians have cool skin that is usually slippery, making them hard to catch! They have four limbs and no scales. They have toxins in their skins, and are often brightly colored.

Examples: Salamanders, newts, toads, frogs, and caecilians.

Spiritual Dimensions: Creatures of both earth and water, these animals are highly adaptive, and embody many of both characteristics.

Fish

These egg-laying residents of water do not breathe air. They may inhabit either fresh or salt water. Some make their homes close to the surface while others exist in the darkness of the ocean’s floor.

Spiritual Dimensions: Water. Realm of the emotional, the subconscious,
and the instinctive.

Insects

The collective mass of insects on our planet outweighs the mass of all other species combined. These creatures have no backbone, and many-such as the bee and the ant-demonstrate elaborate social organization. They are also known for their ability to undergo incredibly dramatic metamorphoses.

Spiritual Dimensions: Because insects are found in almost every corner of the planet, they may be associated with any of the elements. A careful look at their individual characteristics will offer hints about their spiritual natures.

Animal Aversion

Are you someone who hates to get animal hair on your clothes? Never had a pet or enjoyed bird watching? Do you feel nervous around dogs and cats? Don’t assume this means that you are unlikely to have a familiar! Quite the opposite, in fact. Often, we fear or avoid those things we repress in ourselves or those things we most desire, but are unable to accept. Examine your fears, aversions, and dislikes of animals; you may be surprised what you find there and how much you can learn about yourself!

Honoring Your Familiar at the Altar

There are many ways to increase your connections with the animal world, and one of them is to include them on your altar as part of your everyday spiritual practices. Again, there is no right or wrong way to do this. It is simply a way to turn your mind and spirit to the ways of the natural world and become more attuned to the animal kingdom. If after thinking about animal familiars you feel an attraction to a particular animal, you might find
some pictures or representations of them to add to your altar or your home. Such items might include statures, artwork, sheep’s wool, feathers, turtle shells, birds’ nests, or snakeskins. You might also want to find poems or songs about the animal, and commit them to memory. If possible, find recordings of the animals’ sounds and listen to them, noting the emotions that their noises evoke.

Being connected to the animal kingdom happens through conscious intent,
meditation, and desire. There are so many things animals can teach us when we have eyes to see and ears to listen them. An early step to exploring spiritual relationships with animals is simply raising your awareness about them. Going to the library on a quiet Saturday afternoon and searching for folktales and information about specific animals is a wonderful way to increase sensitivity and enjoy an emerging sense of oneness with creatures of the animal kingdom.

(From Llewellyn’s 2008 Magical Almanac)
Title Image from The Well Worn Path Divination Deck. Like it? Buy deck here

There is nothing more beautiful than to see and experience the chakra
system of another person. Because you go beyond looking at him
or her with your eyes, you open all of your senses to experience
this person’s inner light and potential at every level.
Amazingly, everyone can see the chakras, however we just don’t
know what we are looking for. Being told that chakras are spinning
vortexes of light that can be seen clairvoyantly emanating from
specific points in our bodies, puts them out of reach for most
of us to imagine seeing. Although the chakras are very mystical,
they are also the grounding of our everyday lives.

Each of the seven chakras corresponds to specific emotions, imagery and function in its role as an energy gateway in our body. These chakra descriptions may help you get to “see” each one a little better.

Chakra One — Being Real

The first chakra is like a tree. It is powerful and majestic, solid and unmoving, alive and thriving, simple and loving. Its form is the embodiment of intelligence and function.

To see your first chakra, look at everything that is pragmatic, simple and solid. Start with your body. How does it feel? Where is it strong, weak or sick? What illnesses has it had over your lifetime? Look at your body in a mirror; do you look vibrant, tired, or angry?

Then look at everything in your life that is solid. These include anything you could bump into at any given moment; your house, your car, family members, co-workers, the things that are objects of your affection, the things you are sentimental about, the food you eat, etc.

Look at how all the physical objects in your life (including you) are working, and/or not working and you can get a snapshot how your first chakra is functioning. Imagine a tree and its many personalities: tall and strong, stunted, diseased, home to many others, solitary, and so on. What kind of tree is your first chakra?

Chakra Two — Sensational Life

In the East it is believed that everything is so directly connected and in relationship to everything else that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can trigger a hurricane on the other side of the planet. It is in the second chakra that you can feel both the butterfly flapping and the hurricane spinning and know that they both influence your life.

Your second chakra is your ability to let the world in through all your senses by feeling how it flows to and through you. These sensations put you in contact with the world. How are you aware of all the people, places and things in your life? How do they touch you and how do you feel when they do? How aware are you of vibration, light, sound, other people intensions, your desires and passions?

Secondary aspects of sensation are their accompanying emotions. A sensation is the raw unit of feeling. Emotions are feelings coming to consciousness from those sensations and are triggers that move you to turn either inward or outward. Notice how much your sensations drive your emotional behavior in both positive and negative directions. This flapping and whirling is a picture of your second chakra.

Chakra Three — Loving Your Life

To gaze upon a person who is enthusiastically being themselves is to see the sun shining through every pore of their body and mind. Look at everything in your life that makes you unique in the world and you will see your third chakra. You are a one-and-only. Your third chakra is your power to take action on your deepest desires that fill you with passion and joy and use your willpower to let go of unhealthy obsessions that drain your life force. Your life purpose is directly related to your uniqueness. Albert Einstein said, “It is only to the individual that a soul is given.”

Look at how often you freely allow yourself to be yourself, and relax and enjoy that person. How often do you suppress your desires and the unique person you were born to be so that you might conform in some way to external pressures? Once you recognize this aspect of yourself, you are seeing your third chakra.

Chakra Four — Relationships

The fourth chakra is the balance point in the system of the seven chakras. It is the secret that Robert Frost spoke of that “sits in the center and knows.” It loves you, and everyone else, just as you are, unconditionally, in the present moment. It is the heart, the healer of all wounds.

When your heart is open you live in the present moment in honesty and integrity, even if it means being vulnerable at times. Look at the relationships you have with yourself and others in your life, and notice how forgiving and compassionate you are in each relationship.

How easily do you find balance and deep enjoyment in these relationships? When your heart is closed, you live in the past or the future, seeing only what you don’t forgive in another or in yourself. When you look at your ability to “stand in the fire with another and not shrink back,” as Oriah Mountain Dreamer says, you see the radiance of your fourth chakra.

Chakra Five — Expressing Who You Really Are

The fifth chakra is the center of your creative self-expression. It is your willingness to speak the truth of your deepest feelings and highest aspirations and say, “Yes,” and mean it, and “No,” and mean it. To experience an open fifth chakra is to feel the subtle vibration of human expression that manifests itself in every one of your thoughts, feelings and actions. You are a master artist and your life is the canvas you work on
every day.

Notice how you communicate your inner world of subtle feelings and awareness out into the world. In the fifth chakra you make the really tough choice of speaking your inner truth even when it goes against who you have been told you are supposed to be. You are fearless and call your power and gifts out for all to see, and you simultaneously call your weakness and addictions out so that they lose their power over you.

Becoming aware that you are a creation machine allows you to realize that it takes no less energy to create a thrilling life of joy than it does to create a frustrating life of pain and suffering.  Knowing that life is a choice guides you to begin to live the spiritual truth, “ask you shall receive,” and if you don’t ask or assume you don’t deserve it, that, too, you shall receive. Watch your inner artist paint the canvas of your life to see your fifth chakra. Is your artist painting from a blank canvas each day creating life fresh, or is he or she trying to fix yesterday’s painting?

Chakra Six — Seeing Your Place

The sixth chakra, also known as the mind’s eye or third eye, is the center of clairvoyant sight where spiritual guidance flashes into awareness. To gaze upon an open sixth chakra is to see the flash of intuition like a twinkling star in the night sky that brings clarity and meaning to your life and your place
in it.

See yourself from the eagle’s view 20,000 feet above and you will be seeing from the sixth chakra perspective. Notice how your unique talents and skills support and radiate outward in every direction. Do you see any environments you have chosen where you don’t belong?

The third chakra reveals to you your own individuality and uniqueness; in the sixth chakra you see how that uniqueness impacts the world around you. Are you a mother, a leader, an artist, a yogi, or all of the above? In the sixth chakra you see from a higher perspective how you fit into the world and how important your contribution
to the world truly is.

Chakra Seven — Knowing That Anything is Possible

The seventh chakra is the crown of the auric system. When it is open, it brings conscious awareness of the infinite system of abundance that we are all embedded in. Imagination, mystery and the ability to give meaning to the infinite are the gifts of the seventh chakra. A closed seventh chakra brings limitation in some form and pessimism into our lives.

Consider your relationship with infinite possibility. Do you embrace all people, religions and walks of life? Do you question how things have always been done to explore new ways of doing things or are you stuck and limited in your life and vision?

In the seventh chakra, imagination, consciousness and genius live hand-in-hand in the brilliance of that aspect of our minds opening to infinite possibility and thought. Imagine your brilliance as the sunlight dancing on the ocean’s endless horizon and you will see your seventh chakra.

Rhys Thomas is the founder of the Rhys Thomas Healer Training Programs at the Solstice
Healing Arts Center in Medway MA. He is a certified energy medicine practitioner, professional speaker, ordained minister, second degree black belt, crystal bowl healer, intuitive and soul reader. He can be reached at (508) 740-3038 or visit http://www.rhysthomashealing.com

Who was she?
She who sat beneath oaken tree,
Draped in silvery white sheaths of light;
Her throne of wood,
Hand-carved it seemed,
Glistened from her radiance.
The air, scented with unidentified fragrances,
Whispered and swirled,
As a soft breeze danced around her.
Who was she?
She in all her loveliness and ageless beauty.
She who wore naught but light;
Not even a crown adorned her silken hair,
No flowers around her feet,
And her hands
Bare of symbolic authorities.
When I first saw her,
I thought it was I
As a reflection of hallucination.
But as I neared her threshold,
The thought diminished.
Spoke with her I did,
But of what eludes me.
Smilingly, her hand reached toward me,
And I felt the urge to kneel in adoration.
She took my hand in hers;
Shyly I gazed into her eyes.
So young her face,
Yet so old.
But then it seemed neither.
Who was she?
She who was ageless
I felt so much warmth
Compassion and endless love
Flowing through her.
Then without speaking,
I heard her say,
“Would thou kneel before a flower,
a tree, or the sea,
or any other that I am?
Open thine eyes.”
As I did,
I saw her standing before my Priest,
Her hand upon his shoulder, saying,
“Arise. Cast aside thy words,
For I hear thy heart.”
She turned to me
With a smile
And was no more.
Who was she?

From “Elizabeth”, quoted in the book,
Celtic Lore and Druidic Ritual
by Rhiannon Ryall

Scrying, sometimes called `crystal gazing’ is a technique by which a person “gazes” into anything reflective. However, most people use a crystal ball or a scrying mirror. Scrying mirrors are concave opaque pieces of glass. They
are very beautiful. However, you can scry on just about any reflective
surface; a bowl of water, a piece of metal, a mirror, etc. Some people can even scry in smoke, flames, etc.

The purpose of scrying is to gain information. Some people believe
this information is given clairvoyantly or psychically. Others
believe the scrying technique simply clears the mind so information
from the Universe or the Source can flow more freely. The information
given can be used to answer a whole host of questions and concerns.
Sometimes the information given is very literal; the scryer will
see visions of real people, places and events. Other times the
information is symbolic, like dreams, and must be interpreted.

In my experience, open eye scrying takes concentration and regular
practice. I have found it difficult to focus my attention with
my eyes open. I have met people who are natural scryers. They
can focus and images begin to appear almost immediately. However,
I was never quite got the hang of it. I had, however, been able
to gain images, in a relaxed state, on my eyelids, with my eyes
shut. It wasn’t until I met another person who used the same technique
that I realized this was a form of scrying. I’m sure many people
would not consider this technique scrying since it does not involve
a “tool” outside of the person, such as a crystal or
a mirror. However, I have found this to be an effective way to
practice scrying technique with my eyes shut. It helps me focus
and relax and receive meaningful images.

Before I begin, let me just say that I have been scrying on my eyelids
for most of my life. It began spontaneously when I was a child.
However, for people who have tried the open-eyed method and easily
become distracted or frustrated this may be a way that is easier
and relaxed.

Before you begin for the first time, you may want to light a candle or incense. Whatever you do to “clear the air” of any negative energies that may be around. If you have a prayer or an incantation that you like, you can say it as you begin to focus. This little ritual of lighting a candle and saying a prayer will often help focus the beginner. Find a darkened place. Try as I might, I cannot scry in bright light. Get in a position that feels comfortable. I do best lying down or reclined. However, if you feel you will
fall asleep, sit upright or just slightly reclined. Try a few positions until one feels best for you. As you practice, you will find a position where it is easy to relax and you receive the best images.

You are going to want to record your images for future reference,
interpretive purposes and to check back for accuracy in interpretation,
so make sure you have a dedicated journal near by.

Once you are in a position that feels very comfortable, start relaxing your body and your mind. This is the same as meditation techniques. You will want your body to be in a very relaxed state and your mind in a very alert, yet relaxed state. There are some good relaxation and meditation tapes out there by various companies. You may want  to practice relaxation and meditation until you get used to it before you try closed-eye scrying.

I caution you not to use music when closed-eye scrying. The reason for this is that music can often influence the visions and information you will receive. If you need to use some sort of sound to block out noise, I suggest using “white noise” such as a fan. A fan will block out background noise but will not interfere with the visions or information you are receiving.

Once you are in a relaxed state turn your attention to your vision with your eyes closed. At first, all you may see are flashes of light. Or you may have an “imprint” of the last thing you looked at before you closed your eyes. In the beginning, it may take a while for the flashes of light or the “imprint”
to fade. The most important thing is to not really think about these images. Stay relaxed and alert. Begin to “look” with your eyes closed to see if, in the background, you are starting to see any images appear that are not associated with the undefined images of light you saw when you first closed your eyes. Don’t stress, just simply relax and observe.

Remember those old Polaroid cameras? You took a picture and then slowly
an image began to appear. This is what it will be like. In the beginning, you may only see a shadow of an image. That’s ok. Just continue to relax and see if it develops into a more distinct image. Make sure you are recording what you see.

Closed-eye scrying is very similar to “people watching” in the park. When you are people watching, you are sitting, relaxed on a park bench simply watching the people and events around you. You are alert, but you are not involved with what is going on around you. When you are closed-eye scrying, you should feel the same way. You are relaxed and alert. You are simply observing.

In the beginning, try your closed-eye scrying for fifteen minutes. When you are done, write down any images you saw, even if they are shadowy. Eventually, the images will start to become clearer and more distinct. Then the images will start to move, and you will begin to see scenes.

I have had only a few experiences of clear clairaudience, that is, the ability to actually hear what is being said in the images I am observing. However, I do know clairvoyantly what people are saying in the scenes I am watching. I get an inner sense.

If you find a scene unfolding in a manner that feels uncomfortable to you, simply open your eyes. You will probably note you are breathing heavier and no longer relaxed. Allow your breathing to return to a relaxed state and then get up and do another activity. Do not return to an uncomfortable scene. Don’t over intellectualize. Don’t ask yourself, “Am I really seeing this or is it just my imagination?” If you find yourself doing that you are not a relaxed observer. Just let the images appear as they come. Try not to make judgments about yourself or the images. Above all, don’t worry if you are doing it “right”. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to scry.

Interpreting the Information

Interpreting the information you receive is an art, just like closed-eye scrying
is. It will take time for you to learn to interpret the information you receive. Remember, often times you will get information symbolically. I use a very simple technique I learned at the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I attended a lecture at their visitor’s center about dream interpretation. This technique is very easy to use and gives very good results.

Steps:

1. 1. Fold a piece of paper in half long ways

2. On the left hand of the paper write down the elements of the scene
you experienced during your closed-eye scrying.

3. On the right side of the paper, write down what you think those
symbols may mean.

Let’s say, you saw a black dog come out of the woods at your grandmother’s house and eat her prized flowers. Consider first, what does a
“black dog” mean? It could mean something dangerous, particularly if you don’t like dogs or the dog seemed mean. Next, consider grandmother’s house. Perhaps, you always felt safe and secure at grandmother’s house. Lastly, the prized flowers. Those are something grandmother spent time and energy on. Those were something very important to your grandmother. Now, synthesize the symbolism. In this scene, you may feel something is threatening your grandmother’s or your own sense of well-being. This type
of interpretation will take practice and review. Go back and review your interpretations. Often times, once you are scrying on a regular basis, some symbols may repeat themselves, for example, every time you see a rose that could mean love. Remember, occasionally, you will receive a disturbing image. For example, maybe you saw a friend killed in a car accident. If you keep in mind, that most of the images will be symbolic, you won’t call your friend crying hysterically. You may want to call your friend and say, “I’ve
been thinking of you.” You might find out something is happening in his/her life that could be symbolized by a car accident.

Focused Scrying

Eventually, you will want to focus your scrying. Maybe you will do this for
yourself, your family or friends. This will take more practice. As you light your candle and say your prayer, think about the purpose of your scrying.

I also use scrying to communicate with people on an astral level. As I relax, I think of the person and the purpose for the communication. I find this very useful when I have had an argument with someone and we are unable to communicate because we are angry. I can communicate my side to the person and listen to his/her side as well. When you do this, note particularly the surrounding. The surroundings can tell you a lot about what the other person is feeling. If the person meets you in a barren field, he/she may still have harsh feelings for you. If he/she meets you a lush garden he/she may be willing to listen. Please do not try to “invade” the images you see. Just relax, be there and speak your heart. Do not try to manipulate the images you receive. Often times, the other person will not even speak.

You now have the basics of closed-eye scrying. Remember, it will take some practice to get the “hang” of it. The two most  important things you can do are; consistent practice and record everything in a journal. Practice is the only thing that will help you get better. Recording everything will let you know what is working and what is not. There is no one correct way to scry using the closed-eye method.

Source: http://www.empathys.co.uk/87.html

Nature!
We are surrounded and embraced by her – powerless to leave her and powerless to enter her more deeply. Unasked and without warning, she sweeps us away in the round of her dance and dances on until we fall exhausted from her arms.

She brings forth ever-new forms: what is there, never was; what was, never will return. All is new, and yet forever old.

We live within her, and are strangers to her. She speaks perpetually with us, and does not betray her secret. We work on her constantly, and yet have no power over her.

All her effort seems bent toward individuality, and she cares nothing for individuals. She builds always, destroys always, and her workshop is beyond our reach.

She lives in countless children, and the mother – where is she? She is the sole artist, creating extreme contrast out of the simplest material, the greatest perfection seemingly without effort, the most definite clarity always veiled with a touch of softness. Each of her works has its own being, each of her phenomena its separate idea, and yet all create a single whole.

She plays out a drama: we know not whether she herself sees it, and
yet she plays it for us, we who stand in the corner.

There is everlasting life, growth, movement in her and yet she does not stir from her place. She transforms herself constantly and there is never a moment’s pause in her. She has no name for respite, and she has set her curse upon inactivity. She is firm. Her tread is measured, her exceptions rare, her laws immutable.

She thought and she thinks still, not as man, but as nature. She keeps to herself her own all-embracing thoughts which none may discover from her.

All men are in her and she in all. With all she plays a friendly game, and is glad as our winnings grow. With many she plays a hidden game, which is ended before they know it.

Even what is most unnatural is nature. The one who does not see her everywhere sees her nowhere clearly.

She loves herself; she adores herself eternally with countless eyes and hearts. She has scattered herself to enjoy herself. She brings forth ever-new enjoyers, insatiable in her need to share herself.

She delights in illusion. Whoever destroys this in himself and others she punishes as the sternest tyrant. Whoever follows her trustingly she takes to her heart like a child.

Her children are without number. From none does she withhold all gifts, but upon her favorites she lavishes much and for them she sacrifices much. She has lent her protection to greatness.

Her creatures are flung up out of nothingness with no hint of where they come from or where they are going – they are only to run; she knows the course.

She has few mainsprings to drive her, but these never wind down; they are always at work, always varied.

Her drama is ever new because she creates ever-new spectators. Life is her most beautiful invention and death her scheme forhaving more life.

She wraps man in shadow and forever spurs him to find the light. She makes him a creature dependent upon the earth, sluggish and heavy, and then again and again she shakes him awake.

She gives us needs because she loves movement. A miracle, how little she uses to achieve all this movement. Every need is a favor. Soon satisfied, soon roused again. When she gives us another, it is a source of new pleasure. But soon she comes into balance. At every moment she prepares for the longest race and at every
moment she is done with it.

She is vanity itself, but not our vanity. For us she has given herself paramount importance.

She lets every child practice his arts on her, every fool judge her; she allows thousands to pass over her dully, without seeing her. In all this she takes joy and from it she draws her profit.

We obey her laws even in resisting them; we work with her even in working against her.

All she gives she makes blessing, for she begins by making it a need. She delays so that we long for her; she hurries so that we never have our fill of her.

She has neither language nor speech, but she makes tongues and hearts with which to feel and speak.

Her crown is love. Only through love do we come to her. She opens
chasms between all beings, and each seeks to devour her there.
She has set all apart to draw all together. With a few draughts
from the cup of love she makes good a life full of toil.

She is all. She rewards herself and punishes herself, delights
and torments herself. She is rough and gentle, charming and terrifying, impotent and all-powerful. All is eternally present in her. She knows nothing of past and future. The present is eternity for her. She is kind. I praise her with all her works. She is wise and still. We may force no explanation from her, wrest no gift from her, if she does not give it freely. She is full of tricks, but to a good end, and it is best not to take note of her ruses.

She is whole and yet always unfinished. As she does now, she may do forever.

To each she appears in a unique form. She hides amid a thousand names and terms, and is always the same.

She has brought me here, she will lead me away. I trust myself to her. She may do as she will with me. She will not hate her work. It is not I who have spoken of her. No, what is true and what is false, all this she has spoken. Hers is the blame, hers the glory.

~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~~

This story can have a powerful healing effect when read out loud
(or recorded and then played) to someone suffering from a phobia
or other effect of childhood trauma. While names, settings, and
style can be varied to suit individual tastes, the sequence which
the apprentice describes, the sequence the princess goes through,
and the vagueness of the “bad thing” descriptions should
remain unchanged and no element of the story should be left out.

Once,in another time and another place, a kingdom of magic and beauty knew a time of peace. No armies threatened its borders, no bandits plundered its trade routes, no plagues sickened its people. Yet

even in such peaceful times, bad things could happen: accidents,
misunderstandings; even good people doing bad things.

The third daughter of the king was a bright and cheerful sort. She wasn’t the strongest or the prettiest of the royal princesses, but she did have the nicest wings of anyone her age. She loved to fly around the countryside and explore the groves and meadows she found… they were always full of surprises.

One day she found a particularly pretty grove, with a pond glistening n a little clearing in the middle. As she went in for a closer look, she saw images start to form. She saw her own reflection, and as she lightly touched the ground she saw that her reflection was watching reflections of her own… dim watery reflections from her past.

“So you can see the pictures.” The voice from among the trees made her jump. “Don’t worry,” continued the
young man as he stepped out from among the trees, “nobody else can see the same images, Princess. It’s part of the magic.”

“How…?” she asked, looking him up and down. He was a young man, no older than the princess herself, dressed in the rough tunic of a wizard’s apprentice. “Who are you? How did you know who I am, what I saw?”

“I am apprenticed to the Court Wizard. Everybody knows who
you are, Princess… and besides, I have seen you at the palace
when I have been there with my master.” He paused, glancing
at the ground and lowering his voice. “As to the images…
well, at one time I had need of their magic.” “When
I entered the Wizard’s service, I had a great and secret fear.
Something… bad… happened to me when I was younger. It hurt
to even think about, and after time I didn’t think about it much.
But ever since that time, I had lived with the fear. When my master
learned of this, he taught me the magic of this pool and its stream.”

“The pool reflects images from your mind… scenes from your past, dreams of the future, even fantasies of the present. The stream flows like time itself, upstream into the past, and downstream into the future. If I followed the ritual he described, these magicks could wash clean the fear.” She made a face. “I suppose this ritual involves deep magicks usable only by Wizards?”

“Not really. All the magic is in the waters, and anyone can use the ritual. Even a lowly apprentice.” He grinned. “It’s
pretty simple. After he told me about it, he brought me here and then stood back by the trees. He said that he would answer any questions I had but otherwise I was on my own. I stood where I could see my reflection in the pool, and then thought about my fear. As I thought, my reflection watched a reflection of my thoughts…like a stage where dimly lit actors played out the scene against a colorless backdrop. I looked up and saw that I was still here,
in the glade. I looked back at the water, holding on to a small part of the special feeling of fear it had given me.

“As I turned and looked back upstream, I saw more images…each earlier than the last. I relaxed and let the feeling guide me back to the earliest image. When I had that, I turned back to the pool and found my reflection watching the same colorless players in their dim reflection of the memory. As my reflection watched, the image went from a time shortly before the bad thing happened, through the whole thing, and on to a time when it was all over. When it passed the ending that way, it stopped…like a drawing. Then the drawing faded away, and I was just looking at my reflection.

“The Wizard had told me that if I stepped into that last part of the image, it would run very quickly backwards, with full color and sound and me living backwards through it all… all the way through to the part before the beginning. It sounded very strange. As I looked at my reflection again, it was watching the image go forward again in its dim, colorless way. When it reached the drawing  at the end, I stepped into the image and was plunged into a world going backwards! It went clear through to before the beginning
in less than a second; then stopped. Startled, I let the water carry me downstream, through all that had happened since, with the fear gone and the memory unable to hurt me.

“When I reached the here-and-now, I got out and just stood there, knowing
that the fear would trouble me no more.” He stopped, and suddenly seemed to remember where he was, and whom he was talking to. “That was over a year ago, and the fear is still gone. The Wizard says it is gone for good.”

She thought for a moment. “So all there is to this ritual is think of the problem until your reflection sees it, follow
a part of the feeling upstream to my earliest memory of it, wait for my reflection to see it all the way through, step into the ending, and live it backwards quickly? What kind of magic is that?”

He thought for a minute, shrugged, and said “Effective? If you wish, I will withdraw to the trees while you try it.”

“What makes you think that I need it?”

“Because the images only come to those who do.” His voice faded to an embarrassed silence as he realized what  “I’ll go now.” “Yes, do.” She said absently, already thinking. Then: “But not too far, in case I need you.” She was remembering an incident a few days back that had set off her special fear, and just as the apprentice had described, her reflection in the pool was watching a dim and watery scene of the memory.
“Yes, do.” She said absently, already thinking. Then: “But not too far, in case
I need you.” She was remembering an incident a few days back that had set off her special fear, and just as the apprentice
had described, her reflection in the pool was watching a dim and  watery scene of the memory.

Startled, she looked up again. Yes, she was in the clearing, with the trees all around and the apprentice all but lost among the closer ones. She could still feel a part of that fear, so she kept that feeling while she looked back up stream at all the images from the past that the feeling had touched… until she found the earliest of them all. She brought that memory back to the pool and released it as her reflection started to watch it unfold
in its dim and watery way.

Her reflection seemed to have a life of its own as it watched the pale scene start before anything happened, run through the bad parts, and then pause at a time when it was all over. She watched her reflection shift as she prepared for what she would do. Her reflection settled as it watched the scene unfold again. The dim scene passed through the beginning, through the bad time and on past again. When it stopped, she jumped in to it.

Suddenly, she was there again: back where and when it had happened. Everything was moving backwards, and in a flash she had lived backwards through it and past the beginning. Shocked, she let the water carry her down stream, forward through all the rest of her yesterdays without
the bad times for company. When she got to today, she stood up. There she was… standing, dripping in a stream in the clearing.

She looked around for the apprentice, half expecting him to be laughing at the soggy mess she must be. He was there, by the trees… not laughing, just smiling in an understanding way.

In the years that followed, they became friends. Although they went their separate ways… he, as wizard to one of the King’s high lords and she as wife to a neighboring prince… they valued that friendship to the end of their days. And from that time on, neither was ever again troubled by their great fears.

 

Shining Goddess Demeter, fertile one:

As you mourned Kore’s descent into the underworld, raging against
her fate, we too often rage against the circumstances the Universe
sends us, like children in the throes of temper tantrums. We feel
opportunity will never come; we feel happiness is lost to us.

We are blind.

Tonight we open our eyes. We give thanks for the blessings around us as we journey through each day. We rise in the morning to greet the Sun Father in his shining glory. Many cannot rise, and many cannot see. We struggle to earn our daily bread. Many will starve before
the Sun King completes His daily path. We go home to contemplate the Lady of the Night as she rises and watches over our rest. Many have no place to rest.

Tonight we open our eyes. We look around us and fall on our knees in thanks for Thy bounty, the rich milk from the Breast of our Mother and
the sweet, juicy fruit of Her womb. We give thanks for the guidance
that is there if we stop long enough to understand. We give thanks
for the hearts united with ours, searching with ours, loving with
ours, crying with ours, rejoicing with ours. We give thanks for
the guidance of our Ancestors and friends who have passed over
yet reach through the ever-thinning veil to help and love us.

We open our eyes yet prepare to close them. We close them to the
hurts and fears that have burdened us on this turn of the Wheel.
We release them as the trees release their leaves, and are shocked
to see the vibrant colors born of blood and tears. We release
them, then fall on the Mother’s Breast to rest with Her,
to be healed with Her, to contemplate with Her the coming joy
of rebirth.

At Mabon we release our darkness. At Mabon we let it all burn. At
Mabon the old year is waning. At Mabon the Wheel it has turned.

So Mote it Be!

The
Sacred Web is intertwined
‘Twixt me and thee, and thee and thine.
We weave the strands, some are sticky,
Some are lovely, some are tricky.

They’re all connected, and reflected,
Often bringing the unexpected.
If we’re open to the learning,
We will find for what we’re yearning.

Unrejected, and respected,
Love and Laughter, and Connected.

~~ Source Unknown ~~

Medford, OR:
The warrior’s spirit waits within each of us, eager to free us of fears and self-imposed limitations.

Clan of the Triple Horses Grove, invites our community to join us in a Lughnassadh celebration honoring our Warrior spirit and invoking Cuchulainn, known as the Hound of Ulster, and Boudica, Queen of the Icini, to guide us toward strength, focus and clarity.

Join our Grove in celebrating Lughnassadh, the turning point in Mother Earth’s year-wheel when She begins  to offer up the bounty of Her harvest. Our ritual will begin at 11 a.m. Sunday, August 24, 2008, at the outdoor firepit at the residence of our Grove Founder and Senior Druid.

Everyone is welcome to gather beginning at 10 a.m. for preparation, grounding and centering.

Please bring a praise offering to honor these Shining Ones during our ritual and a snack to share after our celebration. Ritual robes are optional.

For exact location and any questions please feel free to contact us
at: triplehorses@gmail.com
or call (541) 621 4659.

Blessings,

Aigeann

White Horse Protogrove

Live Oak , FL:
Another of our newly formed Protogroves – Florida is sure becoming a popular place for Druids! More news on this group as it progresses…

Contact: ShadoStr13@yahoo.com

Wilverly Raven Grove

New Milton, Hampshire, UK:
The grove has met for ritual three times since you last heard from us. The first of these moots was on Sunday 27th April (Ostara 27 in the Asatru calendar, Deareadh Earraigh 27 in the OMS calendar) and was for the Festival of Beltane. Five Druids met to celebrate and instead of Beltane we, a predominantly Asatru Grove, celebrated Walpurgisnacht. The ceremony was preceded by a litter pick. (We collected three bags of rubbish that thoughtless idiots had left behind)

The ritual consisted of a short OMS “Rite Lite”, in honour of the Celtic festival, which was then followed by a full
Odinic Sacrifice to Thor and Sif that they might bless the land with fertility in the lead up to midsummer.

Our second moot was for midsummer itself and this time four of us
abandoned the normal grove setting and instead travelled the 30 or so miles to the Temple at Stonehenge. There we were joined by 25,000 other Pagans as we stayed up all night to greet the midsummer sun. It was, as always, an awesome occasion.

The final rite that I am empowered to report on for this issue was our Lughnassadh/Odinist Martyrs’ Day Ritual. This attracted seven Druids (and four dogs!) and was held (a week earlier than usual due to family holidays). We meet on Friday 25th July (OMS – Dearead Samhraidh 27, Asatru – Haymoon 27) at 1730 in the evening. It was a beautiful summers evening and very hot but the lovely old Beech Trees of our Grove shielded us from the worst of Balder’s heat. Though sadly they did not protect us from  the bugs! After the Rite we retired to our favourite Inn and shared a good few pints of old English ale.

Until the next time, hail the folk!

Derfel Odinsson
Archdruid

Roots Rocks and Stars
RDG “Proto-Grove”

Albany, OR:
Roots Rocks and Stars currently consists of three humans and two
canine companions. We people are all college students, one in
natural resources, one in Literature, and one in history. We live
together in a small apartment in Corvallis Oregon’s north end.
We are all ethnically descended from British Isle and French folks
(some Native Canadian/American ancestry as well) and this colors
our rituals. We are primarily dedicated to Cernunnos, Epona, Brigid,
and Cerridwen but actually tend toward an abiding devotion to
nature and spirit without too much investment in names and images.
Our rituals tend to involve home-cooking and plenty of beer.

Contact:
juliecolibri@aol.com

No news this season from:

TSU

San Marcos, TX USA
RDG “Proto-Grove”

Thorn & Rose
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
RDG “Proto-Grove”