("Dragon Riders", Mika, watercolours)

Treegod (Adam):

Let me tell a story of one contemporary Druid's encounter with the past. It's Druidry dudes, but not as we know it. :)

Our "hero" is Fluffyfire Bambi (or Bob). He's been initiated into the Ancient Order of Tantric Wicca Neo-Druids and has risen through two grades (with a mysterious amount more to go).

Well, one day he's walking through an ancient woodland, which legend has it was the haunt of many Druids in ancient times. As he's feeling the strange, otherworldly energies he comes across a HUGE oak tree he's never seen before,
"That's strange, I'm sure it wasn't there yesterday."
So he approaches it and finds that there is a clearing surrounded by many Oak trees of the same size.
And standing at the centre, a man in a white robe holding a staff.

"Wow, a Druid, probably an ancient one, I'll go and talk to him. Excuse me."
But the Druid doesn't hear as he's concentrating on something...
Fluffyfire Bambi... stuff it, Bob then shouts for attention.
"EXCUSE ME!"
But the Druid jumps and swings his staff at Bobs head, "Go away! Don't do that to me, I'm deaf in one ear, fool!"

Bob feeling bad apologises but then says, "You didn't invoke peace did you? Otherwise you'd feel better."

"Peace?" says the Druid, "What use for peace have I when I planning to kill lots of romans?"

Bob's thought's are confirmed, he's meeting a real live ancient Druid. But talk of killing makes him queasy so he says "It's bad karma to kill, isn't it?"

"Karma? What on earth is that?" The confused Druid asks.

"It's like energetic justice, get what you give sorta thing. My Arch-Druid says that you can clear bad karma by chanting the Awen. Aaaaaaaoooooooweeeeennnnnn"

"A-what? Most peculiar thing I've ever heard." And the Druid scratches his head in confoundment.

"Maybe you use Imbas?"

"What's cutlery got to do with chanting?"

"Oh. Oh well." Then looking around and admiring the trees Bob says "Isn't Nature lovely?"

Thick with sarcasm the Druid answer "Oh yes, just peachy. Only last week it offered me the gift of a flooded home and last winter all my food got eaten by a greedy fat bear!"

"Oh dear. Still isn't Druidry wonderful?" And Bob confidently smiles .

"Wonderful? WONDERFUL!? I've spent 20 years training and all it's worth is "wonderful"! It's bloody hard work! It's bad enough that I failed my last exams and have to start over but then I get offered a measly "wonderful"."

"You failed?" Says our fluffy hero, "That shouldn't happen, I think your Arch-Druid is doing it wrong."

The Druids eyes bulge out and heat proclaims to high heavens "I am the Arch-Druid! I'd swing for yer if I weren't so old!"

"Calm down, we're all friends, just have faith in the Lord and Lady, pray to the gods and say hello to the fairies. That's what my friend says to chear me up."

Well poor mister Druid, he's almost blind with so much eye bulging.
"GODS! FAIRIES!! I'm an evangelical hard-core Atheist! Bloody gods...I've been trying to teach those bloody superstitious barbarian tribes they're deluding themselves and now you're telling me Druids have succumbed to this IDIOCY!"

The Druid starts a torrent of spitting, stuttering and growling until no more can he take and he launches himself at Bob.

"Love and Ligh...oof" Squeals Bob and the Druid keeps thrashing him.

"Make love not...YAAAARRRR! "Flip" it, I can only take so much." And so Bob responds in kind.

So we shall leave these two fellow Druids to their exchange of culture, I'm putting bets on the old Druid to win ;)

(Image : "The Guardian of Destiny", Shakti G., acrylics and watercolours, May '07)

Shakti :

Wind whooshing through the branches

Grandmother figtree leaning into the sun

Birds singing their aleluiahs

Green-hearted woman sitting here

Resting her weary bones

Awash with bliss

(May 29th, a green day, a good day)

(Image : Ways of the Wyrd, The Road to Xanadu, collage on paper, Shakti G., 2002. )

Shakti :

While Mika and Adam are taking Adam´s Mum, Fran, to one of those funny bars on the beach where you can get Spanish tapas (all kinds of little plates with strange-looking E.T (=tiny extraterrestrials with a lot of tentacles in hot sauces), I´m baby-sitting the doggies (and the chicken, and the bunnies) and exploring the Web on a chase about the concept of the Wyrd.
A simple definition :
"Wyrd literally means 'that which has turned' or 'that which has become'. It carries the idea of "turned into" in both the sense of becoming something new and the sense of turning back to an original starting point. In metaphysical terms, wyrd embodies the concept that everything is turning into something else while both being drawn in toward and moving out from its own origins. Thus, we can think of wyrd as a process that continually works the patterns of the past into the patterns of the present. "
Think of it as karma, but with the sense that one can actually change one´s wyrd by taking some kind of voluntary action. Fate is not something blind that happens to you, it is a weaving of factors, some of them being obligatory (if you are unconscious of them), and some of them you can transform by an act of awareness. (Why oh why didn´t you write that letter, that e-mail, that comment in our blog ???...Why didn´t you follow that hunch, see the sign, grok the synchronicity ?... See?)
Oh, that´s weird. Yes, it has become "weird", but a long time back it was your wyrd, meaning : your destiny.
I like that much much better than the concept of a wrathful God distributing gifts or chastising the believers.
Here you have an interesting article about the subject :
http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/heathenry/whatwyrd.html

Mmm... this is a wyrd-weaving post, if you catch my meaning.
;-)

http://www.wayofwyrd.com

Shakti the Wizard :
Sometimes I write around the corners, and sometimes I fly right off the page!
Sometimes I´m laughing while the words dance around my head like crazed bees...
Makes sense ? Of course. Well, this was one of those moments...
Get a-going, and keep straight on, the road has a lot of racy curves!...
Say it aloud, you´ll get a spin and end up giggling. It´s a metaphor, of course.
(Image : "Lothlorien-the-Beautiful", Mika G., 2007)
Metaphor : –noun
1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.” (def. 1).
2. something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.
Wyrd: The word "Wyrd" is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and roughly corresponds to the concept of "karma" in Hinduism. Although wyrd can be personal it is often linked to whole families, tribes, and even races. Unlike Karma, it is not totally fixed. One can move within one's individual web of Wyrd in accord with the amount of consciousness one commands. The less conscious one is, the more one is subject to the seemingly random workings of Wyrd, in contrast to "orlog" which is impersonal and cannot be manipulated.
Alkymia of the Wyrd :…The Baba Yaga is chanting in the fragrant vapours while stirring the soup with a wooden spoon, her white hair all crazy about her face : The Old Iron Pot is floating on a tormented sea, Yeah yeah yeah. And then she goes on, smiling all the while, like the wild woman we know she really is…
"An alchemical vessel it is indeed, says Master Yoda who lives right next door. The fires of awareness are stoked every day in this very cauldron, carefully, tenderly tended to, the fires which gobble up inconsistencies and mash things with dark wings that go bump into the raging, raging night, - the lowlow fires that transform possibilities into good nourishment for the whole village, into soul-food for the hungry." Oof, say that again, Sam!
I´ll say so myself if you allow me to: the brew is savoury, to say the least. The kitchen team is rosy red most of the time (could it be for the tiny crystal cups of bubbly wine?). Anyway, they dance around the fires, breathing on the curly violet-orange-blue flames. More leek! More potatoes! More curry powder! …they call, taking turns with the spoon, sampling the creation with delight. But tchee, there always comes the moment when a tiny voice suddenly pipes up, chirping the dreaded : "Oh! I´m BOOOOOOOORED!..." , and then… … all the ravens fly off with a great whoosh, and we all start to shake in our boots, let´s try this, let´s do that, now a new adventure happens on the horizon, and the old Iron Pot goes a-floating into new waters, with a sky behind it like Turner´s paintings, all about the glory of the light.

The Old Pot´s Al-kymia is working again *sigh*, and the dark angels sort of pile on one another in a corner, all agog, and screaming away the daylights, - all the dark angels go RAOTKF (Rolling Around On The Kitchen Floor)!... Imagine, imagine, imagine! "Imaaaaaaaaaaaaa-gine all the peeeeeeeeeeee-ople…"…Oh oh oh!... Ah methinks it´s not the shiny new tools that will save our day, but the patched, recycled, mended, bumpy Old Faithful – tried this way and that by time and eeeeeeeeeek-spee-rience. Brewing the right mix, the mix "just right" as Goldilocks says, salt, curry, savoury celery, and the exact hidden ***Magik*** ingredient that gives the brew its smooth, smoother, smooziest consistence in town! Brace yourselves, Thrones and Glories. Here come the gnomes, and the trolls, and the fairies – all the little precious ones! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah - breathe in, the spicy savoury (((("vibration"))))… Mwahahahahahahaha Come on, come ON, do inhale, DO, lol!
Post Scriptum – The so-called Dark Angels are "dark" only because they don´t have any sense of RHY-ZZZ-M – babbedee babbeda – babbedoo... doo! ;-)
It rains on the plains in SpainZ…And the Spanish Armada goes a-floating near the Old Iron Pot, just to have a see; a see, you see, a siege, a seat to see the company of dragon riders that swallow innocent people whole, and spit out the bones, good people that they are! Whoa.
...And the Baba Yaga, half screeching crone and half Jedi-knight, she still has some life in her tired bones, after all!

That. Was. A. Metaphor. If you´ll pardon me.
The Dragon Lady, Upstairs.
;-)

(Image : "Grand-Mother at Sunset", pic Shakti G.)

Shakti :


Last week I restored Faerie Corner.
You see, once upon a time there was a nice place between two small pine trees, with a clump of ivy and tiny white stones, that I simply "knew"...Mmmmm....this is a Faerie Corner, no doubt about it! I have a knack for discovering these places.


I don´t really know what it is. This one was very, very small - the tiniest crack between two stones, there was some grass and a bit of moss, but the air feels somewhat different, there is a shimmer, a vividness, a tinkle to it, concretely in this one, it had something very special... And then someone moved a fence, moved the stones to make a place for tools or something, and the tiny corner disappeared! Heeew, I was disappointed! This person has now moved on, and last week I went back to clean that garden, and found the corner there. A bit awry, you understand, all sad and abandoned, lots of dead leaves, but it called to me, hey you, big person, would you please clean up the place? So I did, very carefully, restoring the tiny corner of Faerieland. I cut the dead grass, took out the dead leaves, raked the space, watered it, gently touched the remaining ivy, transmitting my nwyfre, my energy, my connection with the sacred land, and generally prayed for it to come back, back, back...as it was before.


This morning as I passed by close, the grass was singing softly: there was a smile, a ripple about it as if the fairies waved their little hands, and you could hear the faintest giggle coming through the carpet of ivy.


Now before you say "are ya mad", I will own that I don´t see fairies, only through the eyes of my heart...is that not where they really exist ? *smile*

The world in the eyes of my dog...

Mika ? See yourself reflected in Kayla´s eye ?

You gotta love this pic!

(Image : "Tree Dragon, Adam Brough, watercolours)

(Article authorized by the author)

Mika :
"A thing is about to happen which has not happened since the Elder Days: the Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong."
The world that J. R. R. Tolkien describes in 'The Lord of the Rings' is a world where Nature has a great power, great enough even to face and fight the Enemy. Environment in 'The Lord of the Rings' is a key to every different adventure and it is as present as any other main character. Landscapes, lakes, mountains and trees all have their own names in the different languages of Middle-earth, and some even revered by nearby peoples.
In the eternal struggle between good and evil, Nature is on the side of good. The different realms of Middle-earth fight against Mordor, a dark deserted place where no green thing grows. One of the strongest and most unexpected enemies Sauron finds is the Shire, a green land whose inhabitants dwell in peace and happiness. There is a great power in the Shire, as Gandalf says in 'The Fellowship of the Ring', though what exactly that power is we do not know. However, it is certain that the Shire's calmness, and the way its inhabitants respect and work with the environment, is a strength more powerful than bravery or pride. Nature is not just seen as important to hobbits, for if we look at the Elven Realms we find no less admiration and respect for it. The Elves, one of the highest beings in Middle-earth, have a deep link with their environment. Greenwood the Great, or Mirkwood as was known after Sauron came to Dol Guldur, largest of the woods of Middle-earth; Rivendell, the dwelling of Elrond where houses, bridges and roads were made to fit and blend in with Nature; and Lothlórien, the fairest place in Middle-earth. Indeed in the Golden Wood, the elves' close relationship with Nature reaches its peak, for the Galadhrim live actually in the trees, huge golden trees called 'mellyrn'. It is even said that Lothlórien is reminiscent of the garden of the Vala Lórien in Valinor. Valinor, of course, also has a deep connection with Nature, with its two most beloved and revered things having been two trees, Laurelin and Telperion, which shed both golden and silver light that bathed and lit the beauty of the land.
But what about Dwarves and Men? Dwarves are more drawn to stoneworking and smithcraft than the joy of Nature, and not all Men seem too concerned about it either. Stone cities such as Minas Tirith or Osgiliath show us the distance between humans and Nature, but yet it is true that the people of Rohan do show somewhat more of a connection, but still in no way as much Elves or Hobbits. But there are indeed fair places among the dwellings of men, such as Ithilien or the plains of Rohan. Indeed, if we look closer, while Minas Tirith is built of stone, the most sacred thing that lies within the city is a tree, the White Tree of Gondor, seed of Nimloth of Númenor, descended from Telperion of Valinor.
Another race of Middle-earth that is deeply related to Nature are the Eldest of beings of Middle-earth, the Ents, the shepherds of the Trees. These are wonderful living things, walking, talking trees who protect the forests of Middle-earth, peaceful and wise, not very drawn to adventures or wars, and as much alike to hobbits than to any other being in that aspect. But as kind and quiet as the Ents may be, if they are roused they can be terrible and they will fight fearlessly to protect the trees and forests. So it was in the War of the Ring, where the least expected stroke that fell on Saruman was given by the Ents who flooded Isengard and revenged their dead kin, trees that Saruman had fallen and thrown into the fires of Isengard.
But not everything could manage to endure the evilness of Mordor, even when its Lord was destroyed. The beauty and the peace of the Shire was damaged by Saruman, and trees fell and rivers polluted, but even here Nature wins again, for what was the gift of Galadriel to Sam? A tiny seed, not very useful it seemed to the hobbit for the long and perilous journey ahead, but it was that seed that gave life again to the Shire. And what was once was green and full of life started to become so once again. Tolkien disliked allegories and did not want his work compared to any real topic of his time. We won't now compare Sauron and Saruman with the rise of industry and modern technologies, but we can learn a lesson from Tolkien's work - respect for Nature and for living things, for they are all older than we are and they have endured more than we will all ever endure.
And to quote Professor Tolkien: "Every tree has its enemy, few have an advocate. In all my works I take the part of trees against all their enemies". Now, if only we would all play the part of an advocate for Nature, maybe we would regain a glimpse of the Shire or Lothlórien in our own woods.
(Researched and written by Annúnagar, CoE)

(Image : "Imbolc", Shakti G.)

Treegod (Adam) :
Hello All,

I created this blog for my Grove of Quotes blog. Here I start with some quotes then explain and express a view that's flying round my head. I might not put all of these blogs here, but if it's important it may make a show ;)

“This tendency to abstraction may be irreversible, because education today is only concerned with the conscious. The teacher delivers his knowledge the same way a waiter brings a drink to a customer. He has to feed pupils with the official programme. The thing that matters is the programme, not the teacher.” Itsuo Tsuda

“I thought the purpose of education was to learn to think for yourself.” John Keating (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society

“In the space age the most important space is between the ears.” Thomas J. Barlow

“Genius is the ability to put into effect what is in your mind.” P. Scott Fitzgerald

We humans have come a very long from the days we used to swing around trees, barking or howling against competitors and for mates. We’ve created ethics, we’ve invented arts and sciences to reflect our awe and curiosity at the world, we’ve overcome standing on the razors edge of survival and spread all over the world building great cities with great cultures. Yes, we’ve come a long way... or have we?

Well yes, we have come a long way, it’s true but at the same time we’ve got a long way to go. Each human is made of the same stuff, mostly, we’ve all come from the same evolutionary tree so we have, or should have, the same potential for genius. I’m not just talking about intellectual, university type of genius but also emotional, spiritual, physical etc.

But when you walk down a town or cities street is it full on creative geniuses? No, it seems people have forgotten something vital to human life. People seem to have ditched in human quality for human quantity, people are more human doings rather than human beings. We´ve built something and then lots of humans started thinking “that’s it.” I beg to differ, we’re still in the developing process and always will be as evolution never stays still.

We have a great piece of biological technology encased in our skulls which the average person only uses 10% of and “geniuses” use up to around 20%, not because they’re born with a “special” gift but because they nurtured something that is in the human mind already. Look at it this way (analogy time), the brain is a type of dragon which can roar, breathe fire and fly but all it gets taught to do is maybe breathe a little smoke and then spends the rest of its life in some life-sucking beauracracy career where it acts as little more than a paper-weight or door-stop! Do you see my point?

The education system doesn’t let anyone nuture the “inner-dragon” of genius and if it does, it’s often by accident. Instead it feeds the brain with information that it only has to passively accept, without any great effort on its part. It’s a bit like todays dominant form of pleasure the tv, a lot of programmes you just have to sit and watch with no thought. All furniture in the house is no doubt facing the tv, where once upon a time social activity was based around the hearth.

When you’re sitting around a fire, you can’t just passively sit there hoping to get entertained, you have to entertain yourself and others. Around fires people get bored with nothing so they start talking, then singing and playing games and even inventing new things to play, sing and talk about. When I sit by a fire with others I can imagine why the fire of the gods is equated with intelligence because its here where we have room to sit and think and become “divinely inspired” by our thoughts.

Education in most schools consists of giving information to students as though students are just computers to be programmed. They’re given a lot of information but not the skills to be able to use that knowledge. Often people leave the education system not knowing what to do with life so instead go for the easy option to just earn money and not much else. But us humans can be quite spectacular if we can really experience our own potential.

One friend of mine who was trained in a Native American tradition told me that a rare but possible totem was the human totem. A person with a human totem is someone that embodies problem solving. The trait that all humans have to one degree or another is the ability to solve problems. Where most animals see things and reacte automatically, human can make a space inside their minds to imagine something in many different ways to see if there’s any new way of seeing it. But this isn’t something that can be taught passively, but one that each person has to develop for themselves or to “think for ourselves” as one of our quotes say.

One thing is that intellect is severely undermined. It’s usually seen as something that retains information and explains things in a dry, rational way. But to me it is more creative than that, it is not just about knowing and explaining, it also produces abstract thinking and problem solving. To me creative intellect is something that takes experience and knowledge into the imagination to use them in new and innovative ways.

One animal that also has such a trait, to what extent noone knows exactly, is the dolphin. There was a series of experiment where a dolphin had to come up with new and creative behaviour which of course they couldn’t know except by the clue of rewards. In the end their behaviours became so complex that the scientists couldn’t even keep track of it.

But this isn’t about the intelligence of other animals, this is about human intelligence. We’ve become a very innovative species, our whole world and its landscapes have been transformed because we have created so many different ways of living. Of course some of these are having adverse affects with things like global warming, deforestation and the destruction of habitats.

I don’t believe human intelligence did this, human intelligence is more intelligent than that. Our technologies and cultures were created by intelligent people; geniuses, revolutionaries and visionaries but they are maintained by people who haven’t developed the mental tools to cope with our modern abilities and opportunities, our ethics don’t always match our sciences.

The future of humanity lies in the new generations. The concept of a better humanity is not something far off but one that lies with the new generations, if we let it and our best means of doing that is through education. Instead of “restaurant schools”, as Tsuda might have said, we should find alternative ways of education, it doesn’t have to be a posh school, maybe home-schooling. We need new education that gives the students the initiative to become self-learned and self-directed individuals, where people can learn to direct their own lives and know where they’re going instead of relying on societies and governments that themselves don’t have a common purpose.

I want to see a better world, with better people, deeper people. I want people using the potential that lies within them. So first I’m going to work on myself, learning to be self-directed and interested in my life and its potential. Then I’ll find what opportunities I can to pass my experience onto other people. And then... well the skys the limits I guess ;)

("Forest in my Pocket", watercolours, Mika G.)

Treegod (Adam) :

One of my favourite films, funny, intelligent and inspirational has to be the Dead Poet’s Society with Robin Williams. I’d recommend anyone to see it. It’s all about a very strict American boarding school called Welton whose “pillars” are Tradition, Honour, Discipline and Excellence. Although the students call the school “Hellton” and describe the four pillars as Travesty, Horror, Decadence and Excrement. Basically an unorthodox teacher comes, played by Robin Williams and starts causing “trouble” by the standards of other teachers and parents, although as we shall see, he just wanted to inspire the students to live their own life!

Here’s a link describing it; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Poets_Society

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner…"

This is the original quotation they adapted for the film by Henry David Thoreau. The whole film was about carpe diem, latin for seize the day, which is also emphasised in the quote above. Suck the marrow isn’t at all morbid, it just means live life because it’ll soon be taken away. To not let life pass you by but to grasp it and take up every bit of it that you can. A wasted life is no life at all!

Also it’s about noncomformity. In the movie, most of the students are put into Welton because their parents make them go, it’s their parents that decide the life and career they will lead. One student finds he has a passion for acting but his father abhors the idea and wants him to become a doctor and so forces is son not to do any acting, although the son rebels!

No, I can’t live someone elses life, that’s their responsibility, if someone else hasn’t lived their life why should they stop me from living mine? I’ve got to live my own responsibility and make my life unique and extraordinary and “suck out all the marrow of life” and so once again we come full circle back to carpe diem!

Here’s some quotes by Robin Williams character John Keating I found here; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/quotes These really are inspirational, but don’t just read these, watch the movie! And don’t just watch the movie, live life!!!

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

“They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.”

“Sucking all the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone.”

“I thought the purpose of education was to learn to think for yourself.”

“Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be resigned to that. Break out!”

(Image : "Faeries & Goblins", Altered Book)
Hello! I´m the third part of the Lothlorien-Nemeton Seed-Group.
I´m the Wizard of Lothlorien (my blog is in the Links), and an Ovate with OBOD.
I´m also Mika´s Mum, for those who know her, so I live at the Earth Sanctuary, with Mika, my other daughter, Blondie (yes, a nickname!), Adam (Treegod), three dogs, cats, chicken, bunnies, and a community of a thousand trees!
I´m a trained therapist (psychosynthesis), an artist (Altered Books & Artist Trading Cards) and a aspiring Druid.


I´ll be writing here too, so...see you soon!