Silence of the Druids

(Image: The Sanctuary, 2010)

I´m ba-ack, it´s raining. *grin*

People sometimes ask me if we have written books, and what kind of didactic material we work with. Mmm…Good question. (…You mean apart from the OBOD Course? The OBOD Course is the didactic material we are working with, if somebody absolutely insists on the written word.)

Did the Druids of old send off a correspondence course around the planet by plane?

Of course not.

Ah, there is your answer. We teach by example, and our didactic material is that which people are. In other words, we may be of help to certain people who need to decipher their own Mystery, and thus we help them to look into the alive ”book” that each one of them is. See what I mean ? Difficult to express through words, lol.

As an example, one hour in the forest is a good teaching tool. Especially if you teach an urbanite who is enthusiastic about “Mother Nature”and wants “to get, you know, closer to Her, the Goddess”, and so insists on taking off her shoes to go into the the woods, which are 80 %…brambles! Hahaha

See what I mean by “alive didactic material” ? Believe me, you won´t do it twice!…

The Druids of old haven´t written books, didn´t leave manuscripts behind when they disappeared, didn´t build temples of stone (no, not even Stonehenge, which actually wasn´t built by “The Druids”, even if it has become a popular “Druid” icon!…). And they must have been silent, very silent. When you are in tune with the world, what is there to say?

And this is also how I teach, if I may say so myself. I just grin through the whole phase of approach, until the student learns his lessons the hard way.

I´m horrible, I know. But you can´t imagine how efficient, too!

Kew kew kew

(The Lady Dragon, chuckling)

Awen & Nwyfre

(Image, Throne of the Goddess, soul card 80, SG, ’04)

There are two Druidic concepts/experiences that I feel the Western world (=the Matrix) sorely needs at this time : Awen and Nwyfre.

The first, the Awen, is simply inspiration, intuition, particularly poetic, artistic, and also mystical. The Awen defines the Druid. It is the very breath of his/her Druidic presence and role. The Druid “listens” to the voice of the gods, and to the whisperings of the Otherworld, and transmits them as best he/she can to the “ordinary” (=conditioned by the Matrix) world. Besides his other tasks of management, administration, counselling, the Druid is always aware of the finer promptings of his intuition. The Druid is a living Oracle.

All of my art depends on the Awen. I am unable to draw or paint without this inner surge of bliss; I´m really not interest in theories of art or technicalities (I don´t sell my work anyway!) – when the Awen surges I have to leave what I am doing, and go get a piece of cardboard, a white paper, something that I can use, anything, to “take notes”. It is as if I was looking inside my brain! The roof of my brain becomes, at that moment, a rather moved and animated Sixtine Chapel – only with my own images! (I wish I could photograph what I see, since I am self-taught I don´t have the dexterity to reproduce my visions exactly, which is why I admire Alan Lee so much!)

I also know that my soul cards, for example, are inspiring to other people. The Awen gets through the image and sometimes grips a person with a “wow” feeling. I know. This is the feeling that I experienced when I first made the card!…

So I become a sort of willing and very aware channel, or better said, a bridge. That is why my second name is Walker-Between-The-Worlds. A Walker for the Awen.

“That woman”

(Image : “Shadow Warrior”, SG,  2002, collage on paper)

A propos nothing at all, I was thinking today of some of my past workshops, and the kind of funny thingies that happened all the time.

People came from faraway, or were sometimes brought by a friend. I particularly remember the young guy who came from Australia, and was somehow struck by the shennanigans, lol. He must have had some sort of a dreary macho outback life, because he wouldn´t, or couldn´t, talk to me directly. He had been brought by a friend (whom we knew), and he would breathe to him in a  deep baritone that made a nice counterpoint to all the screeching: ”Tell “that woman”…lalala.

Any feminist would have been insulted, but the guy, six feet tall, and rugged looking, was somehow quite funny, particularly the twinkling eyes.

Well, friends, when I die, you just put me into a pine box, and “down under” an apple tree – or under any oak tree, if you´re disgusted by the idea of swallowin´ “that woman´s” atoms with the apples that are sure to come in abundance!

Oh Death…where is Thy victory? …Lol.

Rummaging in my mind and chewing my memories (old people do that, hahaha), I like the idea of being “that woman”, right in between the Little Black Virgin of Montserrat (which lives 50 kms up north of the Sanctuary), and maybe Mary the Magdalene. Get my drift????

Archaic? Who? Me?

(Image: Memories of Gavrinis, 2005, collage on paper) 

In one of the marathon workshops I am leading here in Spain, a lady once told me, in a down-her-nose sort of classy way : “What an archaic body you have!”
Besides being slightly miffed by her remark, – Gee lady, what´s on your mind ? Are you saying that I look old ? – I was quite intrigued by it, and later Googled the definition of “archaic”, just to be sure I had understood.
Lots of fascinating stuff came up. Like …”Archaic” (definition —>): Of, relating to, or characteristic of a much earlier, often more primitive period, especially one that develops into a classical stage of civilization: an archaic bronze statuette; Archaic Greece.
No longer current or applicable; antiquated: archaic laws. See Synonyms at “old”.
Of, relating to, or characteristic of words and language that were once in regular use but are now relatively rare and suggestive of an earlier style or period.
[Greek arkhaikos, old-fashioned, from arkhaios, ancient, from arkhein, to begin.]Ah so. Indeed ? I deciphered then that she meant that I wasn´t a modern scare-crow Picasso type – that being…err…round-shaped (with feminine curves, that is!) is considered by certain classy people as “no longer current or applicable, antiquated”, which miffed me even more!
Mmm… *Shakti, looking like she is going to spew some fire-bolt*
So the next time I saw her (she was a regular of my workshops) I asked her what would be the contrary for her of the word she had used, in the context that she had used it. She looked at me again (down her nose!), and said”Why, contemporary, of course!”
Which sent me right back to Google! (Bear with me, this is fun!)

Contemporary (definition —->):
adjective 1 living, occurring, or originating at the same time. 2 belonging to or occurring in the present, EXISTING NOW (emphasis mine). 3 modern in style or design (contemporary art, contemporary litterature)
• noun (pl. contemporaries) 1 a person or thing existing at the same time as another. 2 a person of roughly the same age as another.
Mmmm…(again) *more fire-bolts coming*

So I went right back to the group that day, asked for the Talking Stick, and said…
Lady, first of all, I don´t “have” a body, I AM my body, which cannot be “archaic”, it is contemporary, because it exists with me HERE AND NOW, since it is the temple of my immortal soul right here under your classy nose. Second – since we are roughly the same age, we actually are contemporaries. Your body, dear lady, is as “archaic” as mine, or, alternatively, as “contemporary” as mine! Which is it ?…
Then we all had a good laugh…and Pass the Cookies, if you please.

It took all my group leader´s inner discipline not to say out loud what really came to my mind. You see, the funniest thing of all is that the lady in question has a wooden leg.
And what I really wanted to answer her, when she made her original remark, was…
Oh ? Really ? And what is YOUR style, pray? Pirate-of-the-Caribbean? …  (*giggle*)

A bit late…but…done! (One less unfinished business to deal with.)