Miscellaneous

It was in 1971, I was 14 years old and it slowly became part of me. What? The light I saw shining around and through the bodies of people I met…

In July, 2001, I wrote a small article for Touchstone called, “A Personal Space – An Idea on how to achieve it!” Now, nearly 2 years later, I find myself still enjoying that small shed at the bottom of my garden. Initially, the idea was just to have a place where I could study and…

There exists an occult and sacred alphabet which the Hebrews attributed to Enoch, the Egyptians to Thoth or Mercurius Trismegistus, the Greeks to Cadmus and Palamedes. This alphabet, which was known to the Pythagoreans, is composed of absolute ideas attached to signs and numbers. – Eliphas Levi, La Clef des Grands Mysteres, (1896) There has…

We fear perdition at every death, and death at every birth. – Máire, a spirit guide. Neurosis exists before birth. That which incarnates through birth as a human being or animal is complex and extensive, and its consciousness of itself as an evolving being is more or less well articulated, or more or less fragmented…

Dion Fortune was an extraordinary esoteric teacher, occultist and novelist who evolved a system for connecting to other planes of existence through her study of human consciousness. She began as a pioneer in the field of psychoanalysis, and later delved into the mysteries of the human mind through occultism. She created rituals and trained initiates…

Love has always been my foremost inspiration in the beautiful journey of my life, deepening my understanding of what I truly am with every passing season.  As I near the end my life’s spring, the uplifting sunlight of my summer has already begun shining into this gentle transition…

In Druidry, often the  ancestors are honoured from three different spheres that can overlap each other. These spheres are the ancestors of blood, who share our bloodlines; the ancestors of place, with whom we now share our physical space; and ancestors of tradition, those who have practiced in the same vein as we do…

First, a few words about the terms used in the title of this essay: Anglo-Celtic is often used to refer to the diaspora from Britain into lands like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Being an adoptive Australian who was born in and spent his formative years in England, I can relate readily…

The paradoxical mystery and beauty of the Autumn Equinox is that when the year is waning and moving towards the dark and colder days of winter, the earth blesses us with abundance…

The Beltane celebrations of the Old Oss begin at midnight on 30th April, May Eve. We rolled up to the Golden Lion pub, where the Old Oss is ‘stabled’ for the singing of the ‘Night Song’. We joined the huge crowd and managed to squeeze ourselves near the front. Everyone stands outside the pub and…

I am often struck how in the depths of winter there is a point when the trees have been bare so long it’s hard to imagine them with leaves. Equally, in the midst of summer, it becomes difficult to imagine them ever being naked again. We adapt remarkably well to the change. However, this time…

The turning of the seasons, the wheeling of the heavens, the many flowerings of the soul: we live in a Universe that is replete with cycles. As a Druid, I am often in a state of wonder at the sheer profusion of turnings and returnings that I encounter in nature. One of my favorite times…

We who engage in postulating solutions to the dominant issues of this time, use much energy speculating on unknown outcomes. But how much energy do we use in laying the ground for a future of our own making? How much time do we give to devising the template for the new society we must create?

“Druidcraft can be seen as both a spiritual path and a path of magic” said Philip Carr-Gomm in Druidcraft and it was Dion Fortune who said: “Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness in conformity with the Will”.

How can tarot possibly relate to Druid practice? Isn’t tarot the end-of-the-pier fortune telling for the gullible? Sadly, it can be but cut through the veneer of tall, dark, handsome strangers and you find an amazing way of connecting to spirit, your higher self, the ancestors. Tarot is endlessly flexible…

As Pagans I feel that we naturally tend towards a worldview that is less anthropocentric, especially if we follow an animistic path.  Our love of nature, whether it is the world around us, or human nature, or both leads us on a journey that can take us outside of our selves, and thereby gaining a…

Druidism, whatever else we would like to think of it as, is a social structure of the past. It existed within ancient Celtic society, serving a very specific role. As the original Celtic social structures that supported it began to disappear and transform, druidism also began to either disappear or transform…

I find it hard to believe that many people interested in an Earth centred spirituality are not aware of what ‘fracking’ is, but there are some who may not understand why those of us who campaign against it do so with such vigour…

My path has many influences. I came to Druidry via Wicca but I have also practiced Yoga for many years and of late have been deepening my practice through Yoga teacher training. This has required me to explore more deeply the philosophy of Yoga and it has been interesting to discover how much of this…

When I learned history, Columbus discovered America. Later, my daughters learned that the Vikings arrived on these shores 500 years prior to Columbus. A few years ago, I heard that ancient Celts possibly wandered America’s heartland and left Ogham marks on a cave in Colorado…

In a recent article published in Paganism 101 – An Introduction to Paganism by 101 Pagans, Emma Restall Orr wrote about Pagan ethics, and how they can be achieved and viable through a religion that has no single central authority or god figure.

When I joined OBOD in 2013, I was without a secret place that I could call my Sacred Grove, and spent six weeks during that late summer diligently seeking and sensing out somewhere special and fairly quiet that I could call my Sacred Grove, and be able to go there in relative secret and use…

Watching the sunlight break through the branches of the trees in my garden, I felt an enormous sense of peace and gratitude, and it occurred to me that there is an intimate link between this sense of thankfulness and our sense of wellbeing…

by Luke Eastwood ~  This year (2012) is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s seminal work ‘Silent Spring’, published first in the USA in 1962. This was the first book of its kind – an outspoken, powerfully argued and well researched condemnation of the reckless use of pesticides in modern agriculture, in…