The seasons
revolve and the years change
With no assistance or supervision.
The moon, without taking thought,
Moves in its cycle, full, crescent, and full.

The white moon enters the heart of the river;
The air is drugged with azalea blossoms;
Deep in the night a pine cone falls;
Our campfire dies out in the empty mountains.

The sharp stars flicker in the tremulous branches;
The lake is black, bottomless in the crystalline night;
High in the sky the Northern Crown
Is cut in half by the dim summit of a snow peak.

O heart, heart, so singularly
Intransigent and corruptible,
Here we lie entranced by the starlit water,
And moments that should each last forever
Slide unconsciously by us like water.

~~ Kenneth Rexroth ~~
(One Hundred Poems from the Chinese)

 

THE GARDEN: A PLACE FOR ONE’S SOUL TO BE NURTURED

AWAKENING

A sensual garden can awaken our connections to the sacred. The
Celtic mystic Father John O’Donahue says that our senses
are “the gateway to the soul.” In looking outward
to a beautiful flower, your eye is delighted, but you are also
touched inside your heart, as Nature is a direct expression of
the divine. It is a contemplative act to do a repetitive action
like weeding, which involves sight (which little green sprout
is a weed and which a flower?), touch (get a good hold!), and
smell (moist, aromatic earth and budding flowers). Each of your
five senses plays an important part in our discovery of the sacred,
and they can be stimulated in winter as well as in the other seasons.

SMELL

Tending your garden is an outward, physical action that unites body, mind,
and spirit. It is like breathing. Taking in air brings us energy
and exhaling releases tensions and promotes letting go and trusting
in the next breath. The simple rhythm of successive breaths is
both life-sustaining and transformational, connecting you to the
air, the sky, and the heavens. When there is a pleasant fragrance
in the air your sense of smell is awakened. There is a lot to
be said about the art of aromatherapy! Scent is our strongest
connection to memory, and memories are the treasures of life—making
you the unique individual you are. The smell of a rose can link
you up with memories—from your grandmother’s garden
to your first Valentine’s bouquet—and the herb rosemary
stimulates memory directly and as many flowers as can be, is used
in aromatherapy.

TOUCH

When you prune, plant, weed, and harvest you are touching the soil,
the plants, and the tools. It is nice to include plants in your
garden that are purely sensual to the touch (soft velvety lamb’s
ear is one favorite). As with a person, there are different ways
to touch plants and different feelings thereby expressed. Usually
a gently touch expresses love and care, and you fell comforted,
do you not? Touch can immediately connect your body to your feelings
and your sense of well being; it connects you to your inner self.
Our language begins to develop; our communication deepens and
becomes more fluid. We say we are deeply “touched”
when our hearts are open. Touching plants, especially mature trees,
can connect you to Nature more intimately and help you develop
your relationship and feelings for these beautiful natural beings.
If you ever have a chance to be in an old grove forest, check
out the energy and look for what the Natives call the Grandfather
of the forest. It is usually one of the oldest and tallest tree
and for some reason you simply sense its wisdom.

TASTE

Your sense of taste can easily be stimulated by the fruits, vegetables,
herbs, and edible flowers in the garden. This is an especially
direct connection between nature and your entire body. Picture
yourself in a generous raspberry patch, eating those divine berry
gems. Your delight and appreciation is felt in every flavor-filled,
melt-in-you-mouth berry. My mouth is already watering as I write
this. What better way could there be to develop good taste.

HEARING

In your garden, your own personal sanctuary, you can be fulfilled
by silence. The silence in a garden in not an empty, hollow, lonely
silence—it is a soft silence that gently beckons you to
go inward into your own soul. A great stone (Native Americans
call the stones, the Stone People), in the garden can teach a
lot about the beauty and groundedness of silence. In face, as
in ancient Chinese and Japanese gardens, a well-chosen stone can
be a focal point for meditation. When your soul yearns to be tended,
go into the garden to cultivate both your inner and outer life—to
silently build a bridge from the seen world to the unseen. The
silence is then enriching and enables you to walk along an inner
path that, with your usual distractions, you may never have noticed
otherwise. Placing a beautiful-sounding wind chime in the garden
will occasionally and spontaneously sing to you. The lingering
vibrations of its harmonic sound resonate within you and, like
a musical string finely tuned, you will find yourself coming into
harmony with this inward and outward rhythm.

SIGHT

To truly see the beauty of every nuance of light, color, and texture
in your intimate sacred garden—to gaze deeply and see well—is
to bring a plant or quality of light—or even a person—deep
into your soul. Each of us has the opportunity to develop our
vision—to be visionary—to know the visible and invisible
worlds. In your garden as well as in your daily life, each perspective
of inner and outer detail as well as the wide-angle view is vital
and richly fulfilling. Your garden can forever humble and reward
you. The two seem to go hand in hand.

~~ Source Unknown ~~

Every time
you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

~~ John O’Donohue ~~
(To Bless the Space Between Us)

GREEN MAN SOUP

Ingredients:
3 green onions, chopped
2 tsp. canola oil
1/2 tsp. dill weed
1 (14 1/2 or 13 3/4 ounce) can chicken broth (reduced sodium is best)
1 (10 ounce) package chopped, frozen spinach, thawed
1 cup low fat (2% is best) milk
3 Tbs. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Procedure:
In large saucepan, sauté green onions in oil until soft,
about 2 minutes, adding dill weed near the end.
Add broth and spinach to pan, stirring to blend.
Cook for 15 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Transfer spinach mixture to blender and puree.
Return pureed mixture to saucepan.
In small bowl, combine milk and cornstarch.
Stir into pureed mixture until well combined.
Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens.

Add pepper and serve cool to room temperature.

* * *

MOON CHAI

10 pieces of ginger, 1-inch
4 cinnamon sticks, broken
1 tsp green cardamom pods
2 1/4 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp cloves, whole
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp liquorice root
1/2 tsp allspice
5 cups water
3 tbs honey
Milk, to taste

Combine everything except for milk and honey, in a saucepan.
Cover pot and simmer for 45 minutes.
Remove the pot from heat, and let sit for another 35 minutes (covered).

Strain out the spices and add honey, and milk if desired.

Now sit under the moonlight and enjoy…

• * * *

WITCHY TWITCHY VANILLA SMOOTHIE

1 cup milk
15 cloves
15 cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla pod, split
1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt

Combine milk, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon in a small saucepan.
Add the vanilla seeds from the pod.
Heat through but do not boil.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Place in the fridge and chill thoroughly.
Strain out the spices, then add the frozen yogurt.
Mix in a blender until smooth and frothy.

* * *

EGG-LEMON SOUP (AVGOLEMONO SOUP)

12 cups Chicken broth
1 cup Long grain rice
Salt to taste
4 medium Eggs, at room temperature
2 Tablespoons Cold water
1 1/2 Lemons, juiced

Make your favorite chicken soup.
Strain broth.
Bring to boiling point, stir in rice.
Cover and simmer over moderate heat until tender.
Salt to taste.
Cool soup slightly and blend with the sauce ingredients listed above.
Separate the eggs.
Beat egg whites till stiff.
Blend in egg yolks which have been lightly beaten.
Then add water and lemon juice, beating till thick.
With ladle, add a small amount of hot broth to the egg mixture, blending quickly.
Pour this into soup and stir well.
Serve at once.

• * * *

QUEEN’S BISCUITS (BISCOTTI DI REGINA)

4 cups Flour, sifted
1 cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Shortening
2 Eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup Milk
1/4 pound Sesame seeds

Lightly grease 2 cookie sheets.
Sift together in a bowl the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Cut in with pastry blender or two knives until pieces are size of small peas.
Add shortening and stir in eggs and milk.
Make a soft dough.
Mix thoroughly together.
Break dough into small pieces and roll each piece between palms of hands to form rolls about 1-1/2″ in length.
Flatten rolls slightly, and roll in sesame seeds.
Place on cookie sheets about 3″ apart.
Bake at 375º for 12-15 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.
Makes 6 dozen cookies.

• * * *

PASKHA (RUSSIAN EASTER CAKE)

3 lbs. Cottage Cheese
1/2 lb. Unsalted Butter, softened
2 1/2 ounces chopped candied fruits and rinds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/8 pint Heavy Cream
4 Egg Yolks
7 ounces Caster Sugar
2 1/4 ounce Blanched Almonds, finely chopped
2 ounces Whole Almonds, toasted
2 ounces candied fruits and rinds

Drain the cottage cheese in a colander with a plate on top for 2 – 3 hours.
Meanwhile, place the candied fruits and rinds in a small bowl with the vanilla extract.
Mix together well and allow to rest for 1 hour.
Put cottage cheese in blender to whip, then place in a large bowl.

Beat softened butter into cheese.
Heat cream in saucepan until small bubbles form around the edge
of the pan.
(Do Not Boil).
Set aside.
Beat eggs and sugar together in another bowl with a whisk until
they are thick and lemon coloured.
Slowly add the hot cream to the egg mixture, whisking constantly.

Place mixture back in pan.
Cook over very low heat, until mixture becomes the consistency
of custard.
Do Not Allow Mixture To Boil.
Remove from heat.
Stir in candied fruits and set the pan in a large bowl of ice
covered with water.
Stir the custard constantly with a metal spoon until completely
cool.
Mix gently into the cheese mixture.
Stir in the chopped almonds.
Russians have a special mold for this cake, but you can use a bowl or a 3 pint clay flower pot.
Line mold with a double thickness of cheesecloth, leaving 2 inches hanging on the outside.
Pour the batter into the mold and fold the edges of the cheesecloth lightly over the top.
Set a weight on top of the cheesecake, and chill in refrigerator for at least 8 hours.
Unwrap the cheesecloth from the top and invert mold onto a plate.
The Pashka will slide out easily.
Gently peel off remaining cheesecloth and decorate cake with candied fruits and whole almonds.

• * * *

EGG NOG

1 Tablespoon Sugar
Shaved ice (1/2 glass)
1 medium Egg
Whiskey (or Rum)
1/2 cup Whole Milk
Nutmeg

Measure one wineglass of whiskey or rum.
Add other ingredients.
Shake thoroughly and strain.
Grate a little nutmeg on top and serve.

• * * *

HONEY FRY BREAD

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 cups vegetable oil, for frying

Mix the flours, salt, sugar and baking powder together.
Add about 1/2 cup water and mix well, adding a bit more water if needed to make a stiff dough.
Turn out on lightly floured surface and knead until dough becomes elastic
and smooth.
Let rest for 10 minutes.
Roll out 1/2 inch thick. Cut into squares, strips, or circles.
Deep fry in very hot oil until golden brown.
Drain on brown paper bags or paper towels.
Drizzle honey in a very thin stream over bread and serve immediately.
Sprinkle with a little cinnamon if desired.
NOTE: This is a variation of the southwestern U.S. fry bread recipe.

• * * *

HOT CROSS BUNS WITH LEMON FROSTING

1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1 cup warm milk (about 110 degrees)
2 Tablespoon butter or margarine
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 Tablespoon each salt and ground cinnamon
1/4 Tablespoon each ground cloves and nutmeg
2 eggs
3/4 cup currants
1/4 cup finely diced candied orange peel or citron
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour, unsifted

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 Tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 400º.
In a bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.
Stir in milk, butter, sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Beat in eggs.
Add currants, orange peel, and enough of the flour (about 4 cups) to make a soft ball.
Turn dough out onto floured board.
Knead until smooth and satiny (10-20 minutes).
Add flour as needed to prevent sticking.
Turn dough over in a greased bowl.
Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1-1/2 hours).
Punch dough down and divide into 36 equal-pieced.
Shape each into a smooth ball.
Place balls about 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets.
Brush each gently with egg yolk mixture.
Cover lightly and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 35 minutes).
Bake in a 400º oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
Cool on racks for about 5 minutes.
With a spoon or the tip of a knife, drizzle frosting over top of each bun to make a small “X”.
Makes 3 dozen.

LEMON FROSTING:

Combine:
1 cup sifted Powdered Sugar
2 Tablespoon fresh Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon water

Stir together until smooth.
Use as directed above.

• * * *

HONEY AND ORANGE TEA LOAF (Scottish)

6 ounces Self Rising flour
6 ounces Honey
1 ounce Margarine
1 large Egg
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
6 Tablespoons Milk
1 large Orange, grated rind of

Preheat oven to 350º.
Grease and line a 2-lb. loaf tin.
Cream the margarine and honey together in a bowl, mixing thoroughly.

Add the egg and beat vigorously.
Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder.
Add, alternately with the milk, to the creamed mixture.
Sprinkle in the orange rind and mix well.
Spoon the mixture into the tin.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove from the oven, glaze with honey.
Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
Serve sliced and buttered.

• * * *

ARDSHANE HOUSE IRISH STEW

4 pounds Middle neck of Lamb, cut into 1″ cubes
4 pounds Potatoes, peeled and cubed
10 small Onions, quartered
2 ounces Pearl Barley
2 pints Stock
Salt and Pepper to taste

This is the basic recipe.
You can add sliced carrots and leeks to make it go further and about 5-6 teaspoons. of Worcestershire sauce or you could add a half a pint of Guinness to your stock.
I make my stock from the potato peelings, carrot tops, leek ends, and any other stuff I find lurking in the refrigerator.
If you put in a few lamb bones and simmer these together for several hours, you’ll have a rich stock.
Strain well before using.
You’ll need to start with about 5 pints of liquid.
Put everything into a large kettle.
Bring to the boil, and then simmer for about two hours.
Add more liquid if necessary.
Salt and pepper to taste.

• * * *

ROAST LEG OF LAMB

5 pounds leg of lamb
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt, coarse or Kosher
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
1 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon thyme

Trim lamb of fat.
Cut slits about 1/2″ deep all over lamb and insert slivers of garlic.
Rub all over with olive oil.
Combine salt, pepper, and herbs and rub herb mixture all over lamb.
Allow to sit at room temperature 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450º.
Roast lamb for 15 minutes at 450º, then turn oven down to 350º.
Continue to roast until desired degree of doneness is reached, about an hour for medium rare.
Baste with pan juices once or twice.
Remove from pan and allow to rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes
before carving.
Potatoes, carrots, and onions may be roasted in pan with lamb.
Baste occasionally.

* * *

LEMONADE

2 Tablespoons Fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 Tablespoons Sugar syrup**
1 cup Water

Put the lemon juice, sugar syrup and water in a glass and stir.
Add ice to chill.
Garnish with lemon slices.

NOTE: To make sugar syrup, bring equal parts of sugar and water to aboil.
Stir until sugar dissolves, and remove from the heat.
Cool before using.
Store unused syrup in a covered container in the refrigerator.

* * *

 

ROSEMARY POTATOES

1 1/2 pounds Small new potatoes
2 Tablespoons Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tablespoons Fresh rosemary, chopped

Cover new potatoes with water and bring to a simmer.
Cook 5 minutes.
Drain and toss potatoes in pan over heat until outside of potatoes are dry.
Add olive oil, salt, garlic, and fresh rosemary.
Place potatoes in a pan, in one layer, and bake in a 350º
oven until crispy and browned, about 15-20 minutes.
Serve with roasted and grilled meats or poultry.

* * *

 

MIXED GREENS WITH RASPBERRY VINAIGRETTE

3 Tablespoons Raspberry vinegar
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Garlic, minced
1/3 cup Olive oil
8 cups Mixed baby greens

Combine first 3 ingredients in medium bowl.
Gradually whisk in olive oil.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Place mixed baby greens in large bowl.
Toss with enough dressing to coat and serve.

* * *

 

DRAGON MEAD

2 quarts dandelion flowers
3 pounds honey
peel of 1 lemon
juice of 1 orange
5 tbls bee pollen
1 tbl strong black brewed tea
champagne yeast

Gather flowers when fully open.
Pick off petals and discard all green and stem.
Wash well. place in large bowl, pour in a gallon of boiling water and stir.

Cool overnight.
When cool strain petals out of water and discard them.
Mix honey, flower water, orange juice, lemon peel, pollen, and tea.
Add in the yeast and stir to aerate.
Cover loosely, skim froth daily until foam begins to recede.
Now 1 of 2 things can be done:
1. You can place it in a 2-1/2 to 5 gallon glass “carboy” with a airlock and “rack off” every month until fermentation
is complete – then place into bottles for at least 1 year.
2. I’ve known people to place it straight from the bowl to bottles and leave the top loose until fermentation is done, then top tightly, its up to you.
Makes 1 gallon.

* * *

BATCH OF HAPPINESS

Free Ingredients!

Feel like you’re simmering on the stove of life? Here is the perfect recipe for cooking up a batch of happiness. The best part is that all the ingredients for a happy life are easily within reach.

You’ll need….

1 part of knowing who you are.
1 part of knowing who you aren’t.
1 part of knowing what you want.
1 part of knowing who you wish to be.
1 part of knowing what you already have before you.
1 part of choosing wisely from what you have before you.
1 part of gratitude for everything you have.

Mixing Instructions:

Combine ingredients together gently and carefully.
Using faith and vision, mix together with strong
belief of the outcome, until finely blended.
Use thoughts, words and actions for best results.
Bake until blessed.
Give thanks again.

Yields unlimited servings

~~ Source Unknown ~~

(ARTICLE ONE)

HOW TO TELL A YOUNG SOUL FROM AN OLD SOUL
by Jose Stevens, Ph.D.
(Who is a long time observer and reader of the Edgar Cayce Readings.)

The following is a brief description of the characteristics of five
basic soul levels. Each level has many lifetimes of lessons to
teach us wisdom through trial and error.

THE INFANT SOUL

INFANT SOULS choose lessons of physical survival. They live in simple
situations that include intense experiences – famine, plagues,
floods, wars, oppression, etc. They don’t know the difference
between right and wrong, though they can be taught to be decent
human beings. They don’t usually seek higher education and
often don’t seek employment, as such. Infant souls don’t
question authority and willingly adopt the religion of their parents
as is.

THE BABY SOUL

BABY SOULS display less fear than infant souls and are more sophisticated.But they tend to over apply rules. Black is black as far as they’re concerned. Their strong early beliefs remain fixed in their minds,
regardless of a lack of their wisdom or tolerance. Baby souls love to become big fish in their little puddles…but hate being opposed. Because of this they may spend much time in litigation. Baby souls don’t spend time navel-gazing into their own lives. They’re often “good students” that learn
”proper subjects”, and are attracted to fundamentalist religions.

THE YOUNG SOUL

YOUNG SOULS are the “Donald Trumps” of the world…the movers
and shakers. They usually set the bar too high for themselves.
Achievement is paramount. They chase after what they believe will
bring success without ever stopping to think why – because they’re
so limited in their perception. They fear death and must have
all the toys, experiences, fame and money they can possibly accumulate
before they die. They are designers of civilization.
Young souls usually seek higher education and graduate-level degrees.
Their views of orthodoxy are at one end of the spectrum or the
other. Monks and nuns are at one end and a belief in total sexual
freedom, the other. They have difficulty with insight into other
people’s behaviour.

THE MATURE SOUL

MATURE SOULS challenge the young soul’s desire to “have it
all”. It is a hard cycle that demands seeking answers to
life’s tough questions. They are attracted to gentler faiths,
such as Quaker, Unitarian, or Buddhist. Mature souls are not as
open to the occult as old souls. They look for and question the
motivation for all of life’s actions. They often continue
with inappropriate relationships – perhaps believing that through
self-sacrifice, or tough lessons they will ultimately prevail.
Often they can’t shake their sense of duty. Mature souls
suffer from stress related illness that sometimes results in schizophrenia,
psychosis and a higher suicide rate than other souls. [Cayce emphasized
the role that “stress” plays in not only physical
illnesses but also mental illnesses; he believed it was “stress”
that wrecked havoc on the brain’s chemistry/balance]. But they’re
smart enough to seek professional help without urging. Mature
souls often make huge contributions to knowledge – particularly
philosophical and scientific. But although they don’t necessarily
have the drive for fame, many still achieve it. They’re
emotionally high maintenance.

THE OLD SOUL

OLD SOULS live and let live. They seek the route of least resistance;
they’re individualistic and usually easy going. They have
an inner knowing of the waste of time in pursuing fame and fortune
and therefore create the appearance of being “laid back”.
Old souls are highly competent – even in roles they don’t
particularly like. They tend to choose work that is pleasant and
undemanding, leaving them free to pursue their desired goals easily…unless
the job adds to the spiritual search. They may or may not seek
higher education…but definitely will seek it if they sense it’s
needed for their chosen path. Old souls create confidence in animals.
And their choice of medical care tends to be alternative and holistic.
Old souls are here to teach others their spiritual understandings.
Their philosophies and writings are simple and easy to read. Old
souls religion is far reaching and has no label. A grove of trees
is a sacred place to them. They seldom cling to dogma and prefer
personal spiritual practices. However, old souls are wise enough
to be discreet in their religious practices and know how to pass
in public undetected. They focus on searching for the spiritual
truth and have a finer sense of knowing what is true than any
other souls level. Old souls all over the world share the experience
of emptiness and a longing for that feeling of home.

You may start noticing these characteristics in people around you
– and perhaps better understand why they think and act the way
they do.

(ARTICLE TWO)

OLD SOULS
By Joya Pope

On deep inner levels, Old Souls perceive the interrelatedness
existing among all people. Intuitively they sense they are part
of an integral whole.

Grasping this big picture, Old Souls then do their best to live by it and
to not harm or judge others. There is a strong urge to be impeccable
and to maintain personal integrity in all transactions. They detach
from the emotional intensities of the Mature Soul period and get
more objective about the ups and downs of life.

Having dozens of lifetimes in varieties of cultures and classes thoroughly
blended into their essences, it is much more difficult for Old
Souls to get embroiled in the right-and-wrong, us-and-them games
people and countries both play. Seeing the whole picture in this
way makes Old Souls calmer, more peaceful and centered. It can
also make them appear passive or weak to the other soul ages.

While Old Souls do not tend to grow into their full soul perceptivity
until about age thirty-five or so, they will, even before then,
be accused of stepping to the beat of a different drummer. They
are unusual – two steps away from the norm – in this Young Soul
culture. Because they are inclined to individualistically follow
their inner perceptions and desires, they may be seen as eccentric,
though usually harmlessly so.

While there is great motivation for spiritual growth, motivation tends
to be lacking when it comes to developing political or material
punch. Seldom doing anything they don’t want to and preferring
their own unconventional pursuits, they often seek the path of
least resistance as far as work, so that all energy can be poured
into spiritual development. Because of the essence’s richness
gathered over many lifetimes, Old Souls tend to be extremely competent
in a wide range of things – which often aren’t pursued. They will
try to find work that supports their personal growth: counseling,
teaching, bodywork, gardening and carpentry being some favorites.

Many are magnetized by philosophy and art. If higher education proves
necessary in order to teach, less orthodox schools allowing more
opportunities for inner exploration will be favored.

A fancy house or car, or impressive clothes and jewelry aren’t often
too high on an Old Soul’s real priority list. Neither is a nine-to-five
job. Plain laziness on the physical plane sometimes creates difficulty
paying the bills, but the material game just isn’t what it used
to be. However, Old Souls do have one advantage with the material
world: as they begin to seek, understand and use the laws of the
physical universe, goals can be attained with less effort. Thus,
there is an outer, as well as an inner draw to understand the
universal laws distilled in astrology, metaphysics, tarot and
other ancient teachings.

Old Souls may explore many religions and teachings, being most drawn
to those emphasizing love and to those they’ve resonated with
closely in past lives.

But being rule-bound or as orthodox as some disciplines require does
not usually last long. Unique, personal spiritual practices, like
an oceanside ritual to mark a birthday, are often developed and
used.

Old Souls are very capable of agape or unconditional love, and many
consciously work on not ever judging other people. For this very
reason, some Old Souls appear to be annoyingly remote. This is
usually an essence who has previously handled many emotional issues
and comes to the planet intent on examining intellectual, philosophical
and spiritual issues, period.

In the television rendition of Shirley MacLaine’s Out on a Limb,
the character, David, who took her to Peru and never stopped playing
pedant, was noticeably lacking in warmth. David appeared to function
well with minimal feeling; he didn’t seem to mind instructing
and mentoring all the time. However, some people get uncomfortable
once they are here with their aridity and lack of emotional warmth
and set out to make up for what their personality seems to lack.
But, the force of essence – which, in this case, is committed
only to comprehending spiritual lessons – will not be behind creating
the change. This does not mean the change can’t be made, just
that it is trickier to pull off because you and your essence agreed
to work on spiritual lessons.

A similar situation arises after a person has had materially successful
lifetimes. The essence has completed the lessons to be gained
from having riches and does not have much impetus to recreate
those situations except as it might peripherally help with other
lessons. Your essence may be willing to let you be dirt poor for
the duration of your lifetimes as long as it is gaining the desired
spiritual and philosophic lessons. Sometimes an essence actually
interferes with a person gaining money when it’s clear that riches
would distract attention from the real inner work.

Remember, you are your essence while you are astral; it is you who decides
not to give yourself the wealthy Young Soul parents or the drive
and ambition to go out and get powerfully rich. The problem is,
of course, that when you arrive on the physical plane, the personality
goes a little crazy without material goodies in a material world.
The personality may push to make a comfortable living, and pull
it off, but again without the added impetus of your essence insisting,
“Make a bundle! You have got to be successful.” As long
as the essence is being fed what it really wants – philosophical
and spiritual food – it won’t hamper your goals of making
money or creating warm emotional connections with people. But
your essence still won’t be giving you its added push toward prosperity
or emotionally nourishing relationships.

A major challenge of the Old Soul period is mastering self-esteem.
No one is complete until there is self-forgiveness and self-love.
Self-esteem can be elusive when living in a Young Soul society
that doesn’t acknowledge the work or innate value of most older
souls. And on top of that, Old Souls truly see what a small part
they play in this grand, infinite universe. For this reason, working
this issue through is often a very big deal, with lots of self-deprecation
being used along the way.

Another major item on the Old Soul school-days agenda is loving being
in a body, manifesting sufficient mastery that you have enough
of what you want to make it pleasurably exciting to be on the
planet. It is never your last life until you like it here; essence
would never let you off the hook before then.

In order to even out your past life choices, as an Old Soul you are
often in the body of the sex you least prefer. But having had
both male and female bodies so many times before, you do begin
to blend the different energies and may not be greatly identified
with being either male or female. It becomes hard to work up a
lather about someone’s homosexuality or “lack of masculinity”
or “femininity”. Bisexual feelings are not uncommon;
whether acted upon or not, they are allowed to rise to the surface,
sometimes. Sex, which takes on a cosmic feeling by blending all
charkas, becomes possible – and sought after.

Seeing an Old Soul as a baby is telling, for while the child is still
acting the demanding infant or growing baby, another quality may
be sensed. Because the soul has done all of this so many times,
the child has a peace, ease, and wisdom about it–at least in
its quieter moments–that can be sensed by the adults around it.

Many fewer Old Souls than Mature or Young ones become famous, and when they do it is usually to teach, for the Old Soul level is the
teaching level.

None of us allow ourselves to complete the physical plane experience
until everything we’ve learned is shared with at least one other
person. Some musicians typifying this Old Soul need to teach are
Joan Baez, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Sting, Judy Collins, Jerry
Garcia, Bob Marley and children’s hero and folksinger, Raffi.
Paul Winter, George Winston, Kitaro and a burgeoning band of Old
Soul; New Age musicians are intent on moving us into gorgeous
inner spaces with their music.

Mark Twain, John Muir, and Albert Einstein were all Old Souls with
a mission, as was Dr. Edward Bach. John Robbins is busy changing
the way America looks at food and food production. Film director
John Boorman (Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory), author Alice Walker
(The Color Purple), goddess researcher Jean Shinoda Bolen, Shirley
MacLaine, Robert Redford and Phil Donahue are some pretty active
Old Souls currently doing work on our culture.

Directly on the spiritual front we find Don Juan Matus, Nostradamus, Gurdjieff, Guru Mayi, Carl Jung, Werner Erhard, Rajneesh, Ram Dass, Matthew Fox, the Dalai Lama, Sun Bear, Swamis Satchidananda and Muktananda and transpersonal psychologists, Christina and Stanislav Grof.

Jesse Jackson, Jerry Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Anwar Sadat, Iceland’s
president, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, and Brazil’s Chico Mendes are
six very affecting Old Souls who put their energy into the political
arena. You’ll notice these individuals teach from their being
or essence in a unique fashion.

Countries currently containing predominantly Old Souls (but not always Old
Soul leadership) are Iceland, Holland, and Czechoslovakia. Old
Soul nations prefer neutrality in international conflicts, and
when that’s impossible, they prefer subjugation to violence and
bloodshed. Being aware that freedom is first an inner experience,
they teach their captors a great deal about harmony and humanity.
Historically we see this in Alexander the Great’s conquest of
(then Old Soul) Persia and parts of what is now modern India.

Old Souls are everywhere, at least sprinkled thinly. Burma has many
Old Souls, as do New Zealand, Finland and Norway. Most U.S. cities
have Old Soul groupings in them whether coastal like Vancouver,
Miami, Laguna and Boston or inland like Minneapolis, Chicago and
Atlanta. However, the deepest United States pockets of Old Souls
are so far primarily in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California.
The Keys of Florida and Orcas Island, Washington are both magnets
for Old Souls. Certain other cities, like Santa Fe and Taos, New
Mexico, and Boulder, Colorado have taken on a comfortable Old
Soul flavor.

Russia also has large scale Old Soul pockets; the major one was, for
a time, Siberia. It is said that these Old Souls incarnated in
the U.S.S.R. to help push that country forward. They did not expect
to end up in gulags, nor would they have chosen that way to work.
Soviet Armenia was bulging with both Old and Mature Souls: even
the best laid astral plans don’t always pan out perfectly.

Many individual Old Souls are scattered about, resting in comfortable
island places like Tahiti, or conversely, working spiritedly in
places like Africa to help bring a country or continent forward.
Old Souls incarnate in Infant Soul areas like the Amazon in order
to protect, assist, foster, nourish and guide those that need
it.

There is a tendency for older souls to have a greater understanding
of what the younger soul perceptivities are like than vice-versa.
Knowing about soul age perceptivity is exceedingly helpful in
understanding the way other people think, the way they look at
life and in understanding something about their life tasks.

Each soul age is trying to experience as much as possible within that
particular level of perceptivity. It’s absolutely to the point
for an Infant Soul to be fearfully concerned about basic survival
and for a Baby Soul to be requesting law and order. A Young Soul
is appropriate when striving for great material wealth, power
and acclaim, and a Mature Soul when beginning to feel intensely
emotional and ask those deeper questions. It’s appropriate for
an Old Soul to not meet societal norms, to look and act mildly
eccentric and to be teaching others, even when his own personal
or material life isn’t together.

To expect your Old Soul child to make a successful climb up a corporate
ladder is unrealistic. Likewise, it’s in error to count upon an
aggressive Young Soul attorney turning her attention towards saving
the environment, or to believe a Mature Soul embroiled in a major
emotional drama would be able to calm down because you showed
him the “big picture”.

An Old Soul starts each lifetime being born as an infant who experiences
Infant Soul consciousness and gradually grows into prior levels
of consciousness. A baby is often perceiving through Baby Soul
consciousness; think about a two year old shrieking because a
parent offended her sense of right and wrong. People vary, but
generally reach their competitive Young Soul consciousness sometime
in grade school years. Mature Soul consciousness arrives for many
during junior high school and is what your up-and-down, full-of-drama,
teenager is experiencing.

Individuals don’t come close to obtaining their true soul perceptivity roughly
one-third of the time. They get stuck. They get lazy. Or the essence
finds it easier to complete certain karmas at earlier more ambitious
or more emotional soul levels. While most Old Souls (Mature Souls
too) will be doing the intense Mature phase in their teens and
early twenties, an Old Soul is often not consistently acting out
of Old Soul awareness until about age thirty-five, and even then
it may be only in some areas of life and not in others. When security
buttons get pushed, for instance, it is often difficult to remain
completely centered in your Old Soul consciousness. Old Souls
will be able to successfully drop out some of the Baby Soul discipline,
Young Soul ambition, and Mature Soul emotionality only if those
qualities are integrated sufficiently into their personality so
that they have access to them when necessary. It does not work
to stick your nose in the air (or your head in the sand) in an
attempt to avoid lessons and gifts from the other soul ages.

People who come into these teachings are usually relieved to find out
why they are different from mainstream society; they knew they
marched to a different drummer anyway. These explanations are
useful, making it easier to understand why humans come in such
varieties and why it is that some share global perspectives and
others, no matter how intelligent and cultured, just aren’t interested.

The purpose of the teaching is agape, not creating yourself to be
one up.

Younger souls are not less intelligent, less appropriate or wrong. Their
lessons are about survival, structure, ambition and success, while
your lessons are about emotional and universal connections. Younger
souls are a natural part of that whole you know is all connected,
right? So, if you’re indulging yourself by feeling superior, aim
for mild tolerance as a way to begin clearing up that attitude,
which ultimately is a painful, separatist one to carry around.

This article is meant – not as a way of “judging” people
– but as a way of understanding the process of the soul’s growth
and evolvement, thereby referring to the old theosophical edict,
“Know Thyself”.

It is said that in the spring, if you happen to find the first flower
of the season on:

Monday – it is good fortune for the season.
Tuesday – your greatest attempts will be successful.
Wednesday – denotes a marriage.
Thursday – a warning of small profits.
Friday – wealth.
Saturday – misfortune.
Sunday – excellent luck for weeks to come.

Take a question to your garden and randomly pick a petal off a
pansy, without looking at it. When you examine your petal, the
following information may be divined…

• If the petal has four lines in it, it is a sign of hope.
  * Five lines coming from the center branch is hope founded infear.
  * Thick lines bent to the right means prosperity.
  * Thick lines bent to the left mean trouble ahead.
  * Seven streaks is consistent love.
  * Eight streaks means fickleness in either you or those around you.
  * Nine, a changing heart.

It was believed that wearing the blossom associated with your
month of birth would bring exceptionally good luck.

January – Snowdrop, a symbol of purity.
February – Violet, for kindness and faith.
March – Daffodil, an emblem for sincerity.
April – Primrose, for the new love springing up in the world.
May – White Lily, for strength.
June – Wild Rose, for healing.
July – Carnation, for protection.
August – White Heather, for good luck throughout the year.
September – Michaelmas Daisy, for happiness.
October – Rosemary, for kind thoughts.
November – Chrysanthemum, for truth.
December – Ivy, for fidelity and faithfulness.

Like plants, most men have hidden properties
that chance alone reveals.
~~ La Rochefoucauld ~~

For ages, man has looked to plants for help in making decisions
or using them to attempt to tell the future, especially in love.
Nowadays, it’s mostly children who use flowers or plants this
way – for instance, the game of picking petals of a daisy
and reciting ‘He loves me, he loves me not’. Many make a wish
as they blow on dandelion seed heads.

Holidays are favorite times for these divination games – especially
love divination. Holly could be used on Christmas, New Year’s,
Midsummer, or Halloween to help you dream of your true love. Bay
leaves were used for this same purpose on Valentine’s Day.

St. Luke’s Day was once the appropriate time for this ritual: ‘Take
marigold flowers, a sprig of marjoram, thyme, and a little wormwood;
dry them before a fire, rub them to powder, then sift it through
a fine piece of lawn; simmer these with a small quantity of virgin
honey, in white vinegar, over a slow fire; with this anoint your
stomach, breasts, and lips, lying down, and repeat these words
thrice:

St. Luke, St. Luke, be kind to me,
In dream let me my true love see!

This said, hasten to sleep, and in the soft slumbers of night’s repose,
the very man you shall marry shall appear before you.’

Almost all cultures have had some form of plant divination. Ancient Anglo-Saxon folklore says that if you offered an expectant mother a rose and
a lily, if she chose a rose, the baby would be a girl. If she
chose the lily, the baby would be a boy.

On the other hand, the Victorians believed that if the pregnant woman
went into the garden, closed her eyes, and spun around to pick
a flower, the hue of the flower would tell her the sex of the
baby. If it was a dark color, it was a boy, and a light color
indicated a girl.

In Korea, carnations were used by girls to tell their future. A girl
would place a cluster of three blossoms in her hair. If the top
one died first, the girl’s last years would be difficult. If the
middle one died first, her earlier years would be hard. And if
the bottom one died first her entire life would be miserable.
(I guess no one in Korea had an entirely happy life.)

Poppy petals were used in the east: a girl would place a petal in her
lover’s hand, and then hit it with the edge of her own hand. If
it broke with a loud pop, her lover was true; if it broke silently,
he had been unfaithful. Gypsies used chives for fortune telling.

Flower Symbolism in Dreams

The appearance of certain plants in a dream was considered an omen
of things to come. To dream of white flowers foretells death,
as does dreaming of birch.

Plants that are good omens in dreams include: palm tree, olive, jasmine,
lily, laurel, thistle, thorn, wormwood, currant, and pear.

Plum, cherry, walnut, hemp, cypress, dandelion, and withered roses in
dreams denote misfortune.

Oak, apricot, apple, box, grape and fig foretell a long life.

Dreams of elder, onion, acorn, and plum presage sickness.

Beans are supposed to produce bad dreams and portend evil.

A significant amount of dream flora is related to love and marriage:

Roses, of course, indicate success in love, as does clover, which indicates
not only a happy marriage but also wealth and prosperity.

Raspberry, pomegranate, cucumber, currant, and box all augur well for love
affairs.

If you dream of being picked by briars, it means you have an ardent
desire, and the young in love often dream of being pricked by
a thorn while trying to pick a rose.

To dream of cutting cabbage means your lover is jealous, and if you
dream of someone else cutting cabbage, it means that someone is
trying to plant the seeds of jealousy in your lover’s mind.

Dreams of walnut indicate unfaithfulness, and dreaming of cutting parsley
means that you’ll eventually be crossed in love.

Dreaming of passing through brambles indicates trouble ahead, but if you
pass through unhurt it means you will triumph over adversity.

A dream of eating cabbages augurs illness for your loved ones and
money loss, but dreams of oak, marigold, pear or nut denote riches.

If you dream of gathering nuts, you should be receiving unexpected
wealth.

Dreaming of fruit or flowers out of season is bad luck, and the reverse
is also true: dreams of plants currently blooming are good luck.

Dreaming of yew means the death of an old person who will leave behind
considerable wealth.

Violets or vines indicate advancement in life and prosperity.

Eating almonds in a dream signifies a journey, and whether they are sweet
or not indicate how successful the journey will be.

Fresh, green grass in a dream is a good omen, but withered and decayed
grass signifies misfortune and sickness, as does dreaming of cutting
grass.

Many dream plants have more than one meaning, which don’t seem to have
much to do with each other. For instance:

Yellow flowers can mean love mixed with jealousy or that you will have
more children to maintain than what justly belong to you.

Garlic can mean the discovery of hidden treasures or that a domestic
quarrel will occur soon.

To dream of the juniper tree itself is unlucky, especially if you
are sick, but to dream of gathering berries in winter can mean
you’ll achieve great honors and become an important person, and
if you are married it foretells the birth of a son.

Daphnomancy

Place fresh laurel or bay leaves in an incense burner or open fire and
concentrate on a question. If the leaves crack loudly and burn
brightly it means the time is favorable, and if they smolder and
die out it’s not. Throw a handful into a fire and watch the flame.
The flames rising up together is a good sign. Three flame points
means a harmonious conclusion, two flame points means you need
a friend to help you, a single flame means single-mindedness.

~~ Source Unknown ~~

AsI enter my new family,
May they be delighted
At how their kindness
Comes into blossom.

Unknown to me and them,
May I be exactly the one
To restore in their forlorn places
New vitality and promise.

May the hearts of others
Hear again the music
In the lost echoes
Of their neglected wonder.

If my destiny is sheltered,
May the grace of this privilege
Reach and bless the other infants
Who are destined for torn places.

If my destiny is bleak,
May I find in myself
A secret stillness
And tranquility
Beneath the turmoil.

May my eyes never lose sight
Of why I have come here,
That I never be claimed
By the falsity of fear
Or eat the bread of bitterness.

In everything I do, think,
Feel, and say,
May I allow the light
Of the world I am leaving
To shine through and carry me home.

~~ John O’Donohue ~~
(To Bless the Space Between Us)

Become Becoming

Wait for evening.
Then you’ll be alone.

Wait for the playground to empty.
Then call out those companions from childhood:

The one who closed his eyes
and pretended to be invisible.
The one to whom you told every secret.
The one who made a world of any hiding place.

And don’t forget the one who listened in silence
while you wondered out lout:

Is the universe an empty mirror? A flowering tree?
Is the universe the sleep of a woman?

Wait for the sky’s last blue
(the color of your homesickness).
Then you’ll know the answer.

Wait for the air’s first gold (that color of Amen).
Then you’ll spy the wind’s barefoot steps.

Then you’ll recall that story beginning
with a child who strays in the woods.

The search for him goes on in the growing
shadow of the clock.

And the face behind the clock’s face
is not his father’s face.

And the hands behind the clock’s hands
are not his mother’s hands.

All of Time began when you first answered
to the names your mother and father gave you.

Soon, those names will travel with the leaves.
Then, you can trade places with the wind.

Then you’ll remember your life
as a book of candles,
each page read by the light of its own burning.

~ Li-Young Lee ~
(Behind My Eyes)

 

Having taught seaman ship and navigation as a young man I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Voyage of Máel Dúin’s Boat. As a young sailor I too have had a few tall tales to tell about shore leave in foreign ports. Several of their adventures
remind me of a time I once spent at sea, but that’s another story better saved for later generations. Lately I can relate  to Máel Dúin’s Boat better then the adventure
itself, “a rickety frame covered in well weathered hide that’s traveled way farther than it was originally intended to”.

My hope is you enjoy your journey as much as I.
Be-Safe my Friends,
Dave

Please read the actual story at least once and enjoy it as the Beautiful Irish Epic Tale that it is, before wading into my ramblings. I do not intend for this to be a scholarly study, my wish is to share my own Immram as I explored The Voyage of Máel Dúin’s Boat.

Text [translation]: Immram Curaig Maíle Dúin (The Voyage of Máel Dúin’s Boat)

So when the question was asked “could it be based on fact” it was natural for me to look at a chart and wonder where they could have gone? Taking descriptions within the voyage I tried to connect them with an actual route they may have followed. My first attempts were to send them into the Mediterranean and the blue green waters of the Greek Islands. Then the green glass sands on the French coast seamed inviting but this ended up as a poor fit. Briefly I attempted to send our heroes to the Green Glass Beach on the Hawaiian Islands but theirs was a less tropical path to follow.

Then the thought hit me, what if they had actually sailed west
into the North Atlantic…
Several of the 3 day legs at the beginning of their journey seemed
to fit nicely with the geography in the North Atlantic. Even the
initial storm would likely have blown them north fitting nicely
with my little scheme.

You may need an atlas before you read this or Google
Maps can be searched for specific locations I mention. I have
included the links to follow from some of my research to allow
you to enjoy a few of the fascinating and beautiful wonders of
the North Atlantic.

Leg #1 – Ireland to St. Kilda (180 miles in 3 days is 60 miles per day)
Assuming they intended to head west but were blown north to start
that would make the Island of St. Kilda a possible landing place
about 30 miles west of the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of
Scotland. It also fits the description of “two small flat islands”.

Figure 1 – St. Kilda

Leg #2 – St. Kilda to N. Rona (135 miles in 3 days is 45 miles per day)
3 days travel and they “heard a sound to the north east” – would land them in N. Rona Island about 50 miles north of the northern tip of Scotland.

Leg #3 – N. Rona to the Orkney Islands (87 miles in 3 days is
29 miles per day)
3 days they find an “island high and great” –
the Orkney’s have the highest vertical cliffs face
(351m) in the UK and are located just off the north east coast
of Scotland.

Figure 2 – The Old Man OF Hoy, Orkney’s

Leg#4 – Orkney Islands to Shetland Islands (87 miles in 3.5 days
is 25 miles per day) 3.5 days they “find an island with sandy soil and horses
with the legs of hounds”. The Shetland Island chain, Shetland Ponies are well known as being shorter than other horses.

Figure3 – Shetland Pony

Leg #5 – South Shetland to north coast of Shetland Islands (100 miles)
Rowed afar to “an island great and flat of large size and breadth”. Maybe another island in the Shetland Islands.

Leg #6 – Shetland Islands to Faroe Islands (176 miles in 7 days
is 25 miles per day)
“A full week…discovered a great high Island…a
plain on the island….valve of stone…pierced by an
aperture through which sea-waves were flinging”. Several
of the long flooded bays in the Faroe Islands have very narrow
openings to the ocean where both the wave action and tidal flow
would be quite impressive under the right conditions.

“Leg #7 – “…an island with a great cliff
around it on every side and therein was a long, narrow wood, and
great was its length and its narrowness…”. The
Faroe Islands are more of a series of long very steep ridges rising
out of the ocean. Long narrow valleys are formed between these
ridges.

Leg #8 – “…island with a fence of stone around it…raced around about the island…round and round like a millstone…it went to the beach to seize them, and began to smite them, and it cast and lashed after them with stones of the harbor… and lodged in the keel of the curragh”. This description would be familiar to any sailor that had tried to launch his craft
from a beach into the surf or had to cross over a reef that generated a surf. There’s an old saying that you haven’t sailed until you’ve run aground (harbor rock meets keel).

Figure 4 – Faroe Islands

Leg #9 Faroe Islands – “Great animals like unto horses. Each of them would take a piece out of the other’s side and carry it away with its skin and flesh… streams of crimson blood…and thereof the ground was full.”

What if the crew were to witness polar bears (adult males can
weigh 400–680 kg or 880–1,500 lb) hunting. The grey
seal(adult males can weigh 300 kg or 660lb) and walrus (adult
males can weigh 1,797 kg or 3,960lb), can be found in the North
Atlantic including Greenland and to a lesser extent Iceland and
both are hunted by the polar bear.

Figure 5 Polar Bear Attacks Walrus

“So they left… swiftly, madly, hastily..”

Sounds to me like the correct response for a crew in a leather
sail boat that has just witnessed a 1,500lb. Polar Bear kill a
3,960 lb. walrus.

Leg #10 – Faroe Islands to Iceland (280 miles) “… hot was the ground under their feet and they could not dwell there for its warmth, because it was a fiery land.. “ Iceland is volcanically active and several legs of the journey could be interpreted as a volcano erupting.

Leg #12 – “Divided in two with a great mountain and a river of fire”. Iceland is volcanically active and the river of fire may have been a lava flow.

Figure 6 – The 1973 eruption of the Eldfell Volcano in Iceland

Leg #22 – “…entered a sea that resembled green glass”.Greenland’s coastal waters are known for being cold, clear and sometimes green.

Figure 7 – The Sea of Glass

Leg  #24 – “…another island, and up around it rose the sea making vast cliffs of water all about it…”.
There is a reef 2 miles off the Ostre Horn on the south coast of Iceland called Hartinger this may well be a description of the surf breaking over a reef. Iceland also has some of the world’s most beautiful waterfalls.

Figure 8 – Denttifoss Falls, Iceland

”… great herds of cattle… and many flocks of sheep…”.
In the northern regions of Green Land the muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus)
could be seen also Arctic reindeer (R. tarandus eogroenlandicus), an extinct subspecies found until 1900 in eastern Greenland. Also Icelandic sheep.

Figure 9 – Icelandic Sheep

Figure10 – Musk Oxen

Leg # 25 – “A great stream rose up out of the strand of the island and went like a rainbow”. The eruption of the geyser named Great Geysir in Iceland has been known to launch 60 meters into the air, this is also the oldest know geyser.

Figure 11 – Geyser Erupting

“The Island was full of the stench of salmon”. Sulfur richpools surrounding geyser do smell quite strong.

Leg # 28 – “A great plain there in on this great table land grassy and smooth”. A very close description to the Icelandic terrain including the fact that it actually has a more temperate climate than you would expect of an Island whose very northern most point just touches the Arctic Circle this is caused by the trade winds arriving from warmer southerly areas of the
Atlantic.

Figure 12 The Great Plain

Leg #28 – The Escape – “… the queen flung the clew after them… and it clings to his hand. Diuran cuts off his hand”. In sailing ships there is always the danger of becoming entangled in the rigging and injured. If you were to ask an English speaking sailor she would tell you that the clew is where the tackle (sheets) are attached to the lower loose corner of a sail (two clews on the square sail of the curragh). If anything on a sailing ship is going to give you an injury it’s the clew of the sail, trust me on this one.

Figure 13 Parts of a Square Sail

The possibility of an injured arm needing to be amputated if it was not healing or became infected would be a possibility. It would be much more honorable (better story later) to lose an arm to save a ship from the queen than to say have a line brake your arm and need to have it amputated due to gangrene.

Leg #29 – “…an island with trees upon it like willow or hazel… great berries…..little tree…caused a deep slumber…new not whether he was alive or dead…red foam on his lips”. The red baneberry have a beautiful
red berry that very poisonous to humans. The poison can cause the following symptoms vomiting, circulatory failure, head ache and diarrhea. This plant grows throughout northern Canada and the southern tip of Greenland. The leaf of the hazel have a serrated border the same as the red – baneberry but shorter, where the hazel is similar in length but not serrated.

Figure 14 Red Baneberry

Red Nightshade was another toxic plant with a red berry that was
a candidate but it is native to England and I suspect they would
have been able to recognize it and not needed to try it out.

Leg #30 – “Let us go into the lake and renew our selves”,
May be a hot spring in Iceland (this one is a bit weak for a clue)

Leg #33 – They describe a “broad rock” and to the west of Ireland is a rock that juts out of the ocean called Rock All. This rock fits both the description of the final leg and direction as well from Leg #1 from St. Kilda. Sula Sgeir does, however, fit in nicely with the description in the final leg of their journey. I do however doubt that either rock could support 7 years of exile for the hermit.

Figure 15 Rockall on Map

Figure 16 Rockall

Figure 17 Sula Sgeir

Yes my theory has a few holes and not just a few leaps of faith
but is this not true of all tails told of the Irish heroes?

Bibliography:

Pics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PolarBearWalrusTuskCarving.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parts_of_a_sail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall
http://wikitravel.org/en/Image:800px-Risin_and_Kellingin.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_pony
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Muskox.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_waterfalls_of_Iceland
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Kangilinnguit.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Early_stages_of_the_1973_eruption_of_Eldfell.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Kilda,_Scotland

Of interest:
http://www.cadip.org/volunteer-in-iceland.htm
(Volunteer in Iceland)
http://www.orkneyislands.info/hoy.html
http://chemistry.about.com/od/geochemistry/ig/Green-Sand-Beach/
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Greensand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walrus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland
http://tinyurl.com/aolg9k
http://www.shetlandtourism.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currach
http://www.thisbetterworld.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Currachs/HornellsBook
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands
http://wikitravel.org/en/Faroe_Islands
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http://tinyurl.com/akkc5y
http://replevin.smugmug.com/gallery/1698539#83530216_bdmF2
http://tinyurl.com/brvkhq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B3rshavn
http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/Scotland/mountaindetails.php?qu=U&rf=6527
http://www.northmavine.com/activities.htm
http://www.geus.dk/media/geus_film_voii_slideshow.html
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http://www.geus.dk/viden_om/voii/ilulissat-uk/voii07-uk.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_baneberry
http://canada-gardens.com/2actaearubra.html
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/466/
http://www.worldfieldguide.com/wfg-species-detail.php?taxno=3437
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Hazel
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http://www.greenland.com/content/english/tourist/nature_climate/glaciers
The Reader’s Digest Great World Atlas (1984) ISBN 0-88850-018-1
Tira Brandon-Evans (2006) The Hazel Grove, School of Bardic Wisdom

(This translation of the Imram Curaig Maíle Dúinwas found at:
The Celtic Christianity e-Library Homepage.
Alphabetical Catalogue, Desert in the Ocean, Celtic Hagiography.

Text [translation]: Immram Curaig Maíle Dúin
(The Voyage of Máel Dúin’s Boat)
Translator: Whitley Stokes
Published: Revue Celtique 9, 1888, 447-495; 10, 1889, 50-95.
Date of Translation: 1888-9
This text scanned by: Jonathan M. Wooding (7/3/2002) – re-use permitted with acknowledgement.)

The way of our natural world is about cycles, surrender and harmony.
We have always yearned to know the mysteries behind the ways of
nature and so have studied the ways of the
animals to learn. This longing to know has inspired us to hide behind jaguar’s humid mask and slip under bear’s heavy cloak and to dance in smoky circles around the fire, dizzy and  thrilled to be in an animals’ skin making animal sounds. We recognize deep in our own animal souls that we can fly and slither and crawl, and we long to do so. Somehow, playing the
animal takes us back to our beginnings. Perhaps it is that animals do not dwell on the past nor do they live in the future. They are entirely in the present and that fascinates us.

In Goddess teachings the animal has always walked alongside Her;
Isis spreads her impressive golden vulture wings wide on the dusty
tomb walls of the pyramids, Yemayah gently picks the starfish
from her damp, sea salty hair and Freya walks quietly through
the night forest with her lithe cats mewling hungrily at her feet.
And oldest one called Neith weaves her fateful fabric silently
with she-cobra at her sandaled feet. The Goddess was there at
the beginning when God blew the world into existence with a fiery
wind. She was there to witness and to sing soft, cool, moist breezes
onto the embers of our earliest days, healing our earliest wounds.
She was there and the animals were there with her swimming in
the cooling ooze.

While many animals speak the knowledge of beginnings, Snakemother is
long-standing and she offers her wisdom words from the shadows
of the tall parched grasses. She waits for us in the desert dawn
and is patient with us as she warms her bones on a rock in the
hot sun. Her laughter is papery when she spies us with her ancient
eyes and she rattles her tail in greeting. She is old and dry
and she has seen the first days, when the world was young and
the rainbows were plentiful. How we long for her mysteries and
to hear the tales of our past. For snake knew Lillith’s
sultry anger in the cool of a desert night, and she knew Eve’s
open joy when the sun shined on her bare body and she assisted
great Isis in her desperate, deceptive lie with Ra. Snake is risk
and rhythm, earth and sky and her undulations murmur permission
when we want to move our hips and dance. Her words whisper, her
words hiss. Her words rustle like the fallen leaves she writhes in.

You may feel her energies when you are about to start new things,
for she is the totem symbol of the beginning, the ouroborus. She
unites within herself, swallowing her own tail thus embracing
her duality; the feminine and the masculine. She is born over
and over again and acting as psychic midwife she teaches us this
process.

Hypnotically she speaks a message for our creation times:

Look how your skin no longer fits you. Come and rest with me in the shade of this splendid world tree whose golden apples will refresh you. Stay with me while you shed your former, rigid skin, release what is no longer necessary and fashion yourself anew. This rebirthing struggle will be fruitful and it will soon pass, for all things do. Beginning is a difficult cord to hold as you must first let go of the end.

And just before the spell is broken we stare into her golden, strange eyes as she coils herself away from us, leaving us alone on the road but facing in the right direction.

Above is an excerpt from the forthcoming book Animal Wisdom, Goddess Ways © 2008 by Renée Starr, CHT. Former proprietress of ALKIMI, she is a certified hypnotherapist and past life regression counselor, healer & clairvoyant offering her services, classes & retreats in Los Angeles, throughout the US & the world. She can be reached at 323-632-0947 or visit http://www.lotustar.net

The Eostar sun, it cuts my eyes
Open to the wind and rain.
All around the Earth breathes deep
I come alive again

I am The Green Man of the woods
The wounded and the broken land
I am the fire in the red stag’s eye
The touch of a lover’s hand
Of a lover’s hand

Oh let me speak, lend me your tongue
To sing the trees and streams
Sing the dark blood of the hills
The moon on gooses wings

I am The Green Man of the woods
The wounded and the broken land
I am the fire in the red stag’s eye
The touch of a lover’s hand
Of a lover’s hand

Oh if you meet me in the fields
Don’t you be alarmed
I come to bring you joy
I’ll do you no harm

Let us dance beneath the stars
The pale moon in our eyes
And celebrate the mysterious
That keeps us all alive
Keeps us all alive

The time has come for us to rise
From the rocks and thorns
Return now from exile deep
Back where we belong

I am The Green Man of the woods
The thistle and the corn
The spark in every creatures heart
The dancer in the storm

I am The Green Man of the woods
The thistle and the corn
The spark in every creatures heart
The dancer in the storm
The dancer in the storm

Permission given from copyright holder as follows:

“We are happy for you to reprint the lyrics of The Green Man on your web site.
The credits should read written and composed by Martin Donelly, published by Beann Eadair Music, reproduced by permission of writer and publisher

The Green Man is a mysterious, eerie figure depicted mainly in medieval
European stonework, believed to represent an ancient vegetation
deity. The Green man is nearly always depicted as a “foliate
head,” that is, a face made of leaves and vines. Sometimes,
it appears as a human face peering out from leaves, other times
with animal features.

The image of the Green man may have been adapted from Roman decorative stonework, or from Celtic interlace figures. Older versions bear a very close resemblance to Celtic and Norse interlace figures, and often combine plant and animal features. One of the oldest examples was discovered on an Irish obelisk that dates to the third century BCE. This may be the Derg Corra of Celtic myth, the man in the tree.

The name “green man” was coined in the late 1930s. Other names for this figure are Jack in the Green or Jack of the Green.

Many believe the Green man is related to the pre-Christian Celtic deity Cernunnos; others that it is simply an expression of the forces of nature, or even a reminder that we, too, are part of the cycle of life. There is no real evidence linking the images to any particular philosophy, cult, or belief, although the faces are strikingly uniform through time.

The Green man is not a strictly European phenomenon- similar images appear in Asian, Indian, and Arabic architecture and art as well.

Whatever his origin, the Green Man is now an unmistakable mascot of the Neopagan religious movement, where he serves as the embodiment of untamed nature, an emblem of the male principal, and a symbol of fertility and vibrant life energy.

Medford, OR:
Druids of Clan of the Triple Horses Grove in Medford, Oregon, journeyed to the Center of who they are and rekindled the Light within themselves during a brief Winter Solstice/Hogmanay ritual Saturday, January 3 at the beautiful Labyrinth of Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford. The Labyrinth has become a Sacred Space and monthly gathering space for our Grove.

Grove member Wolfsong led a brief guided meditation helping members
journey with the Light of the Old Ways as it passed from generation
to generation, from ancient times to modern. Members then walked
the Labyrinth, leaving offerings and lighting candles in the Center.
A brief ritual after the walk allowed members to pass the Light,
symbolized by candles provided by Aigeann and Seven Tines, from
one heart to the next.

What a sacred, special way to celebrate the Light’s Return
and begin the “Muggle” New Year!

Please contact us for full details:
triplehorses@gmail.com

Wintertime blessings,
Clan of the Triplehorses Grove

White Horse Protogrove

Live Oak , FL:
Greetings!
White Horse ProtoGrove is sorta in idle mode at the moment………….I
am back at college working on my LPN & doing pre-requisites
for my RN at the moment & have been very busy……..

Blessings, Ann Feather

Contact: ShadoStr13@yahoo.com

Wilverly Raven Grove

New Milton, Hampshire, UK:
Yule is the big one for Asatru folk and so the grove headed for Stonehenge
to celebrate with other likeminded people.

About 2,000 people were gathered at the stones to watch the mid-winter
sun rise. This is far less than attends at midsummer and yet somehow
the smaller crowd made it feel more important. Almost as if we
were down to the hard-line religious folk and all the thrill seeking
hangers on were long gone.

After sunrise we wandered about the stones talking to Pagans from other
groups, other groves and even another Asatru kindred. It was all
too short-lived though as, as is usually the case, English Heritage
wanted us out before “opening time” and so at about
10am we all headed for home. Yule though is not just about the
solstice. Yule is twelve days (and nights) of celebration, parties
and, most important of all, religious observance.

The following day we held Blot back home at our own Holy Place (in
sight of the Wilverley Ravens) and we were delighted that we got
a fly-past from one of Odin’s birds just as we closed the
rite – a good omen indeed!

The next day saw one of our more outgoing members take on the role
of Father Wotan. Suitably adorned in red robe and white beard
he followed the age-old Odinist tradition (go on admit it –
you thought it was a Christian thing) of delivering gifts to the
children of the kindred. The grove (if all members are taken into
account) has six little-ones and Father Wotan ensured that all
of them got something special. Mind you our red-suited friend
stopped short of climbing down chimneys – the coward!

All too soon we came to twelfth night and this was a more adult affair
as we saw in the secular New Year and made plans for the next
twelve months in the life of the Wilverley Raven Kindred.

With that in mind we wish a happy 2259RE to Druids everywhere and express the heartfelt wish that none of you will ever thirst!

Hail  the High Ones

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”