April 2003
I always thought that I should write a third article on the Awen but it never occurred to me that I would write one including this subject. Sticking ones neck out is never wise and emotive issues such as this terrible Gulf invasion is perhaps not one many would choose.
All of us, every one, no matter how honest we are find ourselves personally moved by our social environment and our present moment in time. This pollutes if we are not careful and many views today follow planned out paths and not true paths. Ordinary People, not bad people do this. As a Druid I only try to follow one rule:
Always Seek the Truth
Some people think that is easy to achieve and they mostly do so. As I look into my bathroom mirror and look into the eyes I see a stranger sometimes. The closer I look I perceive someone else within. The eyes really can be a portal to the soul and the soul is our own minimal fraction of Awen, the spirit of life. What do you see? Truly?
Do you even look truly?
I don't always find answers but I sometimes get brought to earth with an uncomfortable bump. This is good. Truth can often be painful that's why many fashion their own version of it and don't truly know truth at all.
When I see or hear statements telling me that Druid's have been associated with peace from earliest times and we as Druid's owe it to the world to promote peace I feel discomfort. I am sure that the conveyor of such words believes these words true, but true to what? The wearer does not see blinkers.
When power frenzy sends troops to seize another land with bland justification and Head Teachers preach their beliefs to students and take them on grand demonstrations I have to look into the mirror again and ask myself this:
"Who is worse?" I trust a teacher to be a responsible person, caring for my child. What right do they have to influence their thoughts with indoctrination? Surely a good teacher induces healthy openhearted learning. Some of these 'students' were from primary schools here in Britain. Many reacted to a pro-active environment, none truly understood. Even High School students should not have been rallied by violent rhetoric and let us never forget that words can be violent and threatening too...
Julius Caesar needed no telling of such power. That is why he hated Bards so much. Which brings us back to a historical perspective on the role of Druids.
Both Julius Caesar and Deodorus Siculus are quoted for their comments on Druid's passing between the ranks of opposing forces, pacifying warriors and arbitrating peace. Julius was as greedy and power hungry invader as any other witnessed in recorded history. The difference here is we use his records. Are these truthful and honest views? He wrote them for his own propaganda, are we falling into the same use if we stand back and look truly independently?
Druid's indeed did as claimed, but not as pacifists and not between Celts and Roman's. They stood between warring armies of what we now call Celtic people and they stood with empathy for the grievances on both sides of the dispute. This independent empathy viewed from the wisdom of their training allowed them to negotiate compromised peace between two sides that held them in absolute respect if not awe.
The Romans offered no such respect nor did they offer acceptance to this role. Indeed a hate campaign culminating in the great genocide attack on the island of Anglesey off the Welsh coast was typical of the respect given to the Druids. Fear of their power inspired such hatred.
This was a power to rouse the common folk to fight for their independence from Rome. Fearsome in battle they were too, if mismatched against the military discipline and tactics of the Empire builders from Rome. And the Bards played their part in the final rousing of the warriors...
That's why captured Bards lost their fingers and watched their harps burn on bonfires!
Scottish bagpipes were last used in battle in the First World War as far as I know. They were little more than a novelty then compared to their historical role. The pipes not only announced the arrival of a war host but also identified the king that ruled the host. Among their repertoire were battle tunes known to the host that directed the battle from a vantagepoint, like a bugler sounding the advance or retreat or whatever.
The kings were trained and educated by Druids. They learned their battle skills from where do you think? Who taught the Smiths to fashion weapons in metal do you think? Who advised the kings every bloody step of the battle do you think?
Some great kings and battle chiefs were actually Druids who led their men into battle from the front with a full array of weapons, and of course they killed people in battle. Real people. Sons, daughters, husbands, wives, real people. Like you. Like me. Real people. Sickening, but true.
True!
So it hurts me when people use careful and emotive rhetoric to sway my support without encouraging true understanding. We should never advise or lead people into a corralled way of thinking. Rather we should give insight for other viewpoints; this way truth can edge light where there is darkness. And we see the grey bits too. Recently I remarked on a friend's terrific skill in pencil drawing and in doing so I realised that the grey parts are vital in giving lifelike depths to the black lines and the white spaces. Life is like that though I feel pushed to taking sides. Did the Druid that tamed the savage beasts in battle take sides?
I am concerned about ideals using Druidry as an agent for success. Idealism is fundamentalism wearing a different badge. Telling people what to do, rousing them for a purpose is not my role as I see it. So what would I do?
Ideally I would stand between these warring armies and passing between them thus I would pacify the raging warrior and work towards wisdom taming the savage beast, finding sensible solutions. Futility is not one of my strong points but I say this honestly. Neither side would respect me nor do any more than grind me into oblivion. Isn't that the truth?
The Full Moon prayer for peace held each month is a valued project. The magik of prayer is too strong not to use and you don't need anymore words than the ones that grow from your heart and your soul.
As modern Druids we should work for peace but we should not select texts and metaphors to do so. We should never tell, cajole or bully others to this cause but we should stand between all extremists and deal the talking stick with guidance of truth.
So it's true, I am mad after all. As a hatter.
I can live with scorn. I am not right in what I say but I am trying to be honest. That means listening to others but not to be directed to any particular action other than to seek the truth. Isn't that really what modern Druidry is about?
If this message seems confused then so I am. Bewildered, traumatised by the horrors? Absolutely. Disgusted by the failure of the UN? Totally. And fail it has. Just standing up in threat is a failure, showing that threat to be all talk is absolute loss of dignity and stature. Don't make the threat at all is the wise move.
But the UN was too long in the hands of politically self-seeking people to fulfil it's objective. That is the true failure. Do you want a task to concentrate for our future. Take the UN from politicians and hand it to normal people like you, like me.
How many would take up the challenge do you think? I think you would struggle to find any average person to volunteer. You would attract those who see an avenue to fame and fortune. Self-seekers would again control the UN (or any other body). Why? Well that's another sore point with me.
It is nature that is why. Not Human Nature. NATURE!
Another angle is our role as keepers of the world and it's ecology. I hear humans expressed as keepers of nature and the world. We are urged, as Druid's who love nature, to take up this mantle.
Did our ancient fellows love and nurture nature or did they respect it and all it's convoluted life spirit? Did they see themselves as owners of the world, master over all the beasts and keeper of the inferior species or did they respect everything and see themselves as only a part of the great whole. Did they act saintly in their care or did they show reasonable care and respect for all their surrounding co-existences. i.e. not dump litter and rob out every last thing they could carry? Did they not just act socially responsible in a natural world?
I want to encourage that. Afterall, as well as urges to seek the truth are we not told that modern Druidry is a way of life and not a religious or political ideology?
Should we not walk the soft earth with respect for it's myriad life forms that thrive in a balanced interdependent ecology that Grandmother Nature devised to evolve and self-support with ongoing development? Should we not remember all our ancestors that walked the earth before us and ask ourselves if we should continue to meddle and destroy the Grandmothers work?
If nature is our guide then let's view it. Today's communications means many of us see wildlife documentaries and although we are in the manipulating hands of camera operators, producers and scriptwriters, we do see the truth unfold before us. Never since ancient times have we known so much about natural life and never since time began has this exposure been over a great swath of Natures riches.
Do you see these and recognise your fellows, your peers or do you see inferior beasts.
Bear has 'enjoyed' a lot of celluloid in recent years. She Bear will fight without fear when she has young to defend but rarely otherwise. Bear will accept the most grievous knock-back and barely look back as it holds the experience but drops conscious thought of the incident. This helps future choices, wisdom we call it. Bitterness and revenge never becomes an issue, dwelling on a subject is pointless to survival. Some of Bear's attributes can be seen in the response to the day the world changed two years ago but others are lost to us as 'superior beings'.
Ant, ever held up as the ideal is not quite so squeaky-clean. JFK would have appreciated ant's ways; selflessly doing whatever it can for the colony as if the colony thrives, it thrives. Well research as shown that ant does take care of itself and is kinder towards close relatives than other ants. Sound familiar? Nature.
Chimps are our nearest relatives in the natural world. Chimps are a loveable animal. But as many have seen on their TV screens Chimp can be very territorial and war like. Even it's own social group can have violent behaviour that observers don't understand.
Pygmy Chimps are an even closer DNA match for human apes and they prefer to make love, not war. However I'm sure there would be many folk arrested if they went to the same extremes and even these creatures can fight ferociously and may well fight to the death for 'tribal' causes. Nature.
We are Nature's children. We are part of Nature's great scheme and are not superior to any other part.
Wherever we look in Nature we see social groups with different personalities and characters. There is difference. There is good, there is bad, and sure enough there is ugly.
So let us not assume judge, jury and executioner mode. Let us truly stand between the storm winds and cool the fevered brow of blood lust.
But what has this to do with war and what has it to do with the Awen?
In Britain we have a saying about sitting on the fence. When someone doesn't want to declare themselves in support of one faction or another but tries to pacify each and allow their own survival in between but not part of either they are sitting on the fence. So how comfortable is my fence?
Quite simply I know more have a fence than the Druid's who stood between warring armies.
Rather I stand at the fulcrum of the scales of balance. As did my ancestors.
Not black, not white, not wrong, not right but willing to understand and willing to urge compromise. Make no mistake; compromise was always necessary when wisdom not magik solved war parties disputes.
I have been bewildered by the spin doctors nonsense. None more showed the PR activists folly than the Iraqi Information Minister so unkindly called 'Comical Ali' in the British press. Do we admire his loyalty? Do we wonder where his family were while he stuck to his lines?
Pray on each full moon. Speak cautiously but reasoned and please don't tell or lead others in what they should do or you will propagate the foolish and bigoted side of our nature. Coercively thrusting unwilling souls into submissive obedience is a road we don't want to go down.
Be the fulcrum of the scales of balance for balance is never level or true. It shifts constantly in our physical world. It should do, Nature likes it that way. Shifting the balance is Nature's way of going forward. We call it evolution.
So it all seemed to be over very soon in Iraq. I still see the thick rolling fog blanketing the future that has plagued me for many months, long before the military build up. Its density grew and yet it has to diminish. We all have our role yet.
Cast your eyes wider for the danger is far from over as we cycle into a winter in the history of humanity. Be aware and pray for peace whatever your creed. More than anything else accept that Mankind are Nature's child and there will always be strife and vileness.
Please feel free to contact me:
May peace and good health be your companions... Kevin
A personal perspective by Kevin O'Reilly