Alarm clocks, spirituality and the subconscious conversation

Have you ever woken up just before your alarm clock goes off? Can it be related to your spirituality? Is your subconscious really that important or awesome?

This is a response to a student email asking about waking up before his alarm after an evening of visualisation meditation.

“Thank you for sharing your experience with me. Yes, I have had similar experiences with waking up on, or just before, the alarm goes off; although I’ve never had a countdown before! What you are experiencing isn’t supernatural but it is pretty incredible. It’s an awesome glimpse into the work of your subconscious mind. Roughly speaking you can split the mind into three parts: the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious. The conscious is the actively aware part of the mind, the bit we tend to think of as ourselves, although in reality it’s only about 10% of our mind. The subconscious is the powerhouse of a workroom where most of the activity happens, and it makes up about 60% of your mind. The rest is the unconscious, the deep storage areas of the mind. 

Amongst its many functions the subconscious constantly communicates with the conscious and unconscious. Part of the process of meditational visualisation (such as the Sacred Grove) is to ‘turn down’ the overly critical, rational/logical and controlling part of the conscious mind so that we can experience a more free flowing association based communication with the subconscious (and indirectly the unconscious) mind. 

One of the other functions of the amazingly powerful subconscious is to regulate your incredibly accurate biological clock and your wake/sleep cycle. The wake/sleep cycle is controlled by the PER protein. When the PER level drops you become tired, lethargic and sleepy. When it rises you become more energetic and awake. The subconscious increases PER levels and releases stress hormones to slowly bring you out of sleep. If you are in a regular (healthy) sleep pattern it starts the process about an hour before you need to wake up. Your body finds it really stressful to be woken abruptly out of deep sleep (by an alarm clock or anything else) as a panic response your system is rapidly flooded with stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. To avoid this kind of excess bodily stress the subconscious mind can alter the timing of the wake cycle PER increase to bring you out of deep sleep and into consciousness/wakefulness at the time required; especially if getting up early or at specific time has been forefront in your conscious mind (possibly with some level of anxiety attached to it). Your subconscious mind and internal body clock really is that good; so good in fact that it can time it so you reach wakefulness minutes before your alarm goes off! 

Ok, very interesting I (hopefully) hear you say, but what has this got to do with Druidry? One of the unstated aims of (particularly)the Bardic grade is to forge a greater awareness and free flowing communication with the subconscious. We do this so that we can gain greater insights into (and utilise) the vast array of knowledge within our own subconscious and unconscious minds. We can gain greater knowledge of who we are (not just who we think we are) our drives, passions, reactions, patterns of behaviour, patterns of thoughts, patterns of memories and outcomes, patterns of emotions and much more. When you see religious, new age or mystical quotes and catchphrases about soul searching or finding God within (“the wise man knows himself”*, “I looked for my self and I found God, I looked for God and found myself.”,”there is no God but man”, “god is within me” etc) this is the process they are describing. This act of Gnosis is the central theme to most magical, mystical and (some) religious practices. The language and symbol sets they use differ greatly (“to become one”, “knowledge and conversation with the holy guardian angel”, “find yourself”, “unity with god” etc) but the aim is to bring greater self awareness and harmony; and in doing raise your conscious awareness to a higher level. In the Bardic grade we start this process through the use of visualisation, meditation, ceremonial ritual and through developing a greater awareness and use of the creative and artistic processes, which often defies the controlling rational consciousness and instead draw heavily on access to the symbolic world of the subconscious.

Waking up just before your alarm seems like a fairly ordinary event that everyone experiences at some point in their lives, but it highlights the immense sophistication and complexity of the human mind and it’s untapped resources and potential.”

(* Ok, so I think this was actually Shakespeare but you get the idea!)

Fragments On Being a Mentor

Sometimes being an OBOD Mentor is a thankless task.

It is a great honour to be asked to join the mentoring team; and for the majority of the time it is a wonderful and uplifting experience. I am often genuinely humbled and in awe of the depth of experience and the abilities of many of my students. Being a mentor is a great responsibility, and we freely volunteer our precious time, extensive experiences and accumulated knowledge to benefit both the students and the Order.

Most of the students I’ve corresponded with over the years have been friendly and courteous. Yet occasionally, in this landscape of digital communication where instant gratification isn’t quick enough, you get a student who will try to treat you like a low paid call centre lackey and complain bitterly if they don’t get an immediate response to their communication.

Unfortunately I had one of these recently. In two emails I endeavoured to describe what being an OBOD mentor entails, why it is rare that students get an instant reply and why, when writing to their mentors, students should look beyond their own immediate wants and practice some patience.

These are the relevant fragments of those emails:

“Unless there is something that I feel requires urgent attention, I deal with correspondence in the order they arrive. I feel that it’s my duty as a mentor to give each individual correspondent the courtesy of treating their emails and letters with the time, attention, consideration and respect that they deserve. I try to answer all correspondence as soon as possible, although, depending on the queue emails, and the in-depth nature of some of the content, this often means replying in the third or fourth week. I’m sorry if this doesn’t match your expectations, standards or particular requirements. If this is an insurmountable issue for you, please feel free to…”

“what you have to bear in mind is that not all students are as confident and ‘self contained’ as you seem to be. Also, I gather from your emails that you have friends and acquaintances within the Druid community, and not all students have that either. Some students are like you and write fairly regular quick brief ‘chatty’ updates and ‘progress reports’ that are straightforward and easy to respond to. Many other students write long, in-depth letters, sometimes covering months of their work at a time and asking for various opinions and reassurances. For many students the mentors are the only people that they are in contact with who they can discuss issues of Druidry, Paganism or Magick. As such, it is important to take the time and care needed to engage the student in a meaningful and constructive dialogue.

I am both a Bardic and Ovate mentor; I am a mentor for 3 other mentor on the team (a mentor mentor if you like) and I am also the admin on the OBOD Mentors FB group. In March I will have been part of the Mentor team for 11 years. While that is no where near as long as the longest serving mentors, it is still a pretty hefty chunk of time. And due to the “open” time scale involved in the grades, particularly the Ovate grade, over the years I have amassed a large list of active students. Some I’m in regular contact with, some are sporadic, but overall I have a fairly high volume of correspondence. To put that into context, on the day I received your last email it was one of three student emails to arrive as well as receiving a new student allocation. The email I was dealing with prior to this one covered in detail 4 months of someone’s Ovate journey and asked several important questions.

There are also ‘busy’ times of year when due to holidays or inspiration, the volume of correspondence rises, Summer solstice, Christmas and Easter being the main ones. Then there is the extra time, care and attention that is required when processing end of grade reviews, again particularly Ovate reviews which, as you will discover, can be very in-depth, detailed and intense. And finally of course there is an inevitable degree of record keeping and administration to be completed.

Overall, Mentoring is a fairly complicated and time consuming process. There are times when it’s free flowing and easy to keep on top of, and other times it gets very hectic and time pressurised. Because of all this reply times can, and will, vary. Unfortunately that’s just the nature of the beast.”

Midnight Stones

My cover for the SONG (Spirit Of the Northern Gathering) newsletter back in the mists of time, reworked in black biro on cheap crappy copy paper.

  

The Magickal process and Creativity.

In Druidry we place a lot of emphasis on the creative arts and being creative; especially the “traditional arts” of poetry and music. Throughout the centuries the skills of the ‘Bard’ as poet, storyteller and musician have been the mainstay of communal gatherings and entertainment. In many ways they still are, although their scope and media, like their audiences, has altered drastically. We also have a high appreciation the ‘visual arts’ of painting, drawing, and sculpture. All of these art forms are socially important. They bring us together as a society, record our histories and reflect our hopes and our dreams. They are part of the fabric of who we, as a people, are. It is of no wonder then that they, and their artists, are held in such high social esteem. However, these ‘traditional arts’ are not the only ways to be creative or to think about creativity.

Over recent decades there have been many studies about creativity and many theories concerning the creative process (Honing Theory, The Explicit–Implicit Interaction theory, Creative cognition theory etc.). Some more appealing and “valid” than others. Esoterically, we see the creative process as a magickal act during which the practitioner conceives an ‘idea’, then uses the focus of their ‘will’ to make that ‘idea’ (or a representation thereof) manifest in the physical world. For example you conceive the idea to write a poem about a tree, you spend time applying your will to organise the words and imagery you wish to convey into the form of a poem, then you manifest the poem into the physical world by writing or typing it out. Conception of Idea-focused application of will- manifest result.

In Qabalah the creative process is delineated into four parts that correspond to the four “Qabalistic worlds” Assiah, Yetzirah, Briah and Atziluth, which represent the Tetragrammaton YHVH. In this model the magickal act of creation (Idea-Will-Manifestation) has an extra preliminary dimension added to it. In order to be able to intellectually conceive an idea it first must exist in the ‘Divine’. The origin of all creation is Atziluth, the realm of divine emanations and archetypes. It is where everything exists in its perfect form conceived by the Union of God. The second stage, Briah, is the realm of creation. For our purposes Briah can be viewed as the point of inspiration, where we conceive a reflection from the divine emanating out of Atziluth. Yetzirah, the third stage, is the realm of formation. This is a realm of thought where the inspiration from Briah is given shape and form before being physically manifest into Assiah, the material plane.

In Druidry the process of creating is linked to the concept of Awen, which can be roughly translated to mean “flowing inspiration”. In the imagery of ‘Awen’ we are following a similar idea to the Qabalists but instead of breaking it down into separate steps we are trying to encapsulate the whole dynamic process. Awen follows the flow of the creative force. We ‘call the Awen’ down into ourselves from the ether, or from the divine source; the Awen flows through us driving and inspiring us to engage our creative will, which gives shape and form to the Awen as we release it into the physical world. Like the Qabalists we are drawing ‘inspiration’ from the “divine”, engaging our ‘will’ to give it shape and form as we ‘manifest’ it into the world. Each time we chant the Awen we are singing a hymn to the creative process and opening ourselves up to be conduits of the creative act.

Engaging with the creative process can have beneficial effects on many levels. Contacting and using the creative part of ourselves can teach us a lot about ourselves and how we assimilate and interact with the worlds about us. On a magickal level, being creative can help us be more receptive to the ‘divine’ or higher States and in doing so build a stronger more accessible link to that state. It helps us to exercise, focus and discipline our ‘magickal will’ . It helps us to explore and understand our own subconscious/inner symbolic language; and to experience the release of manifesting our magickal intent out into the world (A lot of magick is ineffectual because the practitioner never truly “releases” the intent to be independently active in the world. When you a throw a stone into a lake, you can choose the trajectory, the speed and the timing of the throw. but only once it has been fully released on its path can it fulfil its purpose and create the ripples in the water). If we are skilled, inspired or lucky enough something we create may alter or effect someone else’s life.

However, some people are naturally more ‘artistically skilled’ than others. This doesn’t mean that those of us who are less ‘artistic’ shouldn’t engage in some form of creative process. Creativity can come in many forms and many of the accepted definitions centre around the concept of “the production of something original and worthwhile” (Robert Sternnerg), or “production of novel, useful products” (Mumford). Wikipedia defines creativity as “.. a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed”. Whilst these definitions are problematic with their need to further define concepts like “worthwhile” and “valuable”, they do highlight “production of something new” as the main aspect of creativity. If we accept this aspect as a definition we are no longer limited to the popular conception that creativity has to be the “traditional arts”, instead it opens up whole new worlds of possibilities of what we can class as creative. Any productive “handicraft”, skill or idea can be counted as creative and therefore part of a magickal process (For instance, as far as I’m concerned, anyone who can take raw ingredients and make a half decent meal, bake a cake or produce a loaf bread is a creative genius producing something both “worthwhile” and “valuable”!) It could be argued that daydreaming imaginatively (counterfactual thinking) can be counted as a creative act that can produce subtle, but tangible, manifestations on the physical plane.

Ultimately, however, you don’t have to be “good” or “artistically skilled” at something to be creative. It is the act, the impulse, the feeling of creating that really matters. We can’t all be Yeats, Mozart or Rembrandt, but we can engage in the creative process. And magickally speaking, the inherent artistic or aesthetic “value” of the created product is of little concern. Instead it is the experience of the creative process that is truly important.

Suffering in religion

Dumbledore (a blogger on our ‘Grove ‘ blog – Link here-) posed a question on our face book group. It concerned the theme of suffering in religion. He noted how the Jewish, Christian and Buddhist traditions all, to a degree, focus on suffering, and asked why we, as pagans, didn’t? And was suffering, or the avoidance of, “healthy” in religion? Below is my response….

“Ok, so this is a little longer than I intended, and I hope it makes sense….

I think “healthier” is probably very subjective to the tradition/religion/ idiom you are engaged in. I guess you’ve got to look at the core concepts of the religions in question, and at the time in history these concepts were decided on. 

Judaism, at its heart, is a religion based on principles of superiority and revenge. The Jews largely conceived their hardline central doctrine whilst enslaved by the Babylonians. Their religion taught that they were the chosen people beloved by God (yehweh) and that their god would save them and destroy, or damn to everlasting torment, their enemies and other nonbelievers. However, to prove that they are part of the chosen they must live their lives under strict observations and laws. Whilst in slavery they were powerless in this world, but if they lived strictly by their codes, they believed that after death they would be “saved” and their oppressors punished. 

This started a trend of thought that was whole heartedly adopted into early Christianity. If you lived by strict doctrines you would be worthy to become one of the elect and ascend into heaven after death, whilst the lesser people (everyone else) would be punished. Into this mix you can add the idea of sin and the notion that all mankind is damned by inheriting the original sin of Adam and Eve, therefore you have to work and suffer even harder to atone and prove your devotion to your god so you can be saved. All together it sets up a nice theory of redemption (and revenge) through suffering. Jesus then becomes the ultimate poster boy for the persecuted and advocates suffering as the path to holiness. Asceticism and monasticism can become the way to prove devotion to god. In this peculiar doctrine “suffering” is “healthy” because it brings you closer to god. 

Judaism and later Christianity came about in turbulent times. In both cases  large ‘civilised’ empires were in decline, the social order was collapsing, wars were common; life was short and uncertain. As chaos and change reared it’s head, the optimism of the civilised world dropped and pessimism took over. Religions focused on an afterlife and salvation became desirable. 

In classical (and to a degree neo-paganism) the Gods are far less judgemental, patriarchal and demanding. In paganism the gods are more immediate and approachable (personable?). You could petition their favour through correct rites and appropriate sacrifices, in essence you could “buy” their help. In most cases you did not have to devote yourself to a god nor follow a lifestyle to make yourself worthy of their favour, there were no scriptures or authoritative dogmas to follow, and there was no all powerful social hierarchy to judge you.  In this idiom “suffering” would seem “unhealthy” and would be addressed by seeking the intervention of the Gods.

Paganism is relatively optimistic,  concerns were generally based in the  everyday here and now material world, life was about living,  and the gods were petitioned to help you have a better life. Judaism and Christianity on the other hand are pessimistic and focus on the next life which will be better than this life that you have to renounce and suffer your way through to be worthy of the next. Buddhism, what little I know of it, is also pessimistic as it seeks to transcend this material world and focuses on next state/oblivion.

As a neo-pagan I believe that the world is a wonderful, spiritual and sacred place. I am spiritually optimistic and generally glad to be alive. Im free to self determine (to a degree) and I’m self empowered (to a dgree) and not subject to the whim of a controlling “church/organised religion”, patriarchal god or social hierarchy. I don’t believe in sin or a need to appease a judgemental god to achieve favour in the next life. I see this life as a pleasurable place that we should all enjoy, therefore I see “suffering” as unhealthy and undesirable”

My spiritual path (pt.3)

The next question was:
“Are there any points of tension in your hybrid path?”

My response:

“At first I was really worried that there would be tensions and conflicts, and I was desperate to keep it all compartmentalised. But after a while I started to notice similarities creeping in. Eventually I worked out that most of the techniques were essentially the same in intent if not symbolically. Then I learnt that OBOD Druidry and Crowley were based on the Golden Dawn system and a lot of it clicked into place. The basic techniques or technologies are the same across the board, they just utilise different symbolic and cultural settings. The aims of the systems are also the same – spiritual growth and transformation.

I think that if I was strictly wedded to one pantheon of gods or set of symbols there may have arisen some conflicts. I would also think I’d have had more problems if OBOD Druidry was more dogmatic, or if I was strictly following Crowley’s methodology instead of ‘cherry picking’ the parts I want. I do struggle with the overt Christian symbolism of the Golden Dawn, mainly because I’m just not familiar with the bible.”

My spiritual path (pt.2)

The first question was:
“what attracted me to ceremonial magick and Thelema?”:

My response:

“I guess it was a culmination of many seemingly disparate influences and awarenesses that had been building in me for a while. In a Lovecraftian way I wanted to know more, to step beyond what mainstream society was trying to sell me, to scratch the surface…

As I said, ‘religion’ was never really part of my life, but I did know that Christianity as I saw it at the time (now I’d recognise it as the hypocrisy of the ‘church’) just wasn’t for me, it was too keen on control and conformity. So, I wasn’t looking for alternative religions or spirituality, but through countless little references
Aleister Crowley’s name just kept coming up. I was intrigued on who he was (I’d already started to look into Tarot at this point) and “Book 4: magick..” seemed to be his most famous book, so that’s were I started –
I got hold of a copy when I was 15(?) didn’t really understand a word of it, but I got enough to realise it was important. Something (probably my HGA) just kept kicking me inside the head saying ” pay attention, this is important!”. In an effort to decipher book4 I started to read into the occult and the more into it the more intrigued I got. … And that’s how my journey started – as a way to ‘unpack’ and understand Crowley and ‘book4: magick’.

Overall, it just seemed to ‘speak’ to me and I liked the symbolism and the ritual, I liked the idea behind it, I liked the complexity and interconnectedness, I liked the aesthetic, I liked the sense of taking responsibility for your own spiritual life and that you were ‘allowed’ or encouraged to be a unique individual, I liked the researching into history and philosophy that it started me on, I liked the ‘feel’ of it I guess.

I wasn’t looking for a ‘religion’, but as I started reading and understanding I guess I became aware of a ‘spiritual’ and ‘intellectual need’ that was unfulfilled in me, magick and occultism filled some of that need (Druidry helped fill the rest) and gave me something to focus on.”

My spiritual path (pt.1)

On our Grove Facebook group we are currently each sharing the history of our spiritual path and answering questions posed by the other grove members. These may be shared later in our grove blog: corieltauvigrove.wordpress.com

In this part I’ll copy my original post, in the next part (or two) I’ll post up my responses to various questions.

“Religion was never part of my childhood. If push came shove my parents would probably claim to be Christian, but that’s about as far as it would go. I was never christened, and apart from 1 wedding, 2 funerals and the inevitable junior school harvest festival, I’ve never been to church. The closest I ever got to religion whilst growing up was watching Sparticus or a similar technicolor biblical epic at Easter whilst scoffing chocolate. I didn’t grow up with religion, I’ve never missed it and I’ve never felt the pain of loosing ones faith or the need to replace it with another. I don’t consider Druidry as a religious faith, instead I see it as a living spiritual philosophy.

When I was a younger I was never a “mainstream” kid, I was into sci-Fi and fantasy films, books and TV. I got into rock and heavy metal music, RPG’s, weird and horror fiction … As I’m sure tha Daily Mail and certain sections of the Church would be keen to point out, my drift towards the occult was inevitable.

My first foray into the occult was with tarot cards and runes. Then I went straight onto Aleister Crowley’s “Magick in Theory and Practice”. Thus started my complex relationship with the great beast himself.

In an effort to understand Crowley, I looked into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, other occult groups, and societies; and other religions. I read a lot on occult theory and various pagan and magickal paths.

I joined OBOD in 1991; Spent 5 years as a bard, 4 as an Ovate and 5 in the Druid grade; graduating in 2005. I was approached about becoming a tutor a few years before I graduated. I passed the tutor selection process, and took up my role as a Bardic tutor in March 2006. I am currently a Bardic, Ovate and (occasionally) a Tutor tutor. I am also admin on the shadowy and secret “OBOD mentors” FB group.

Although dedicated to Druidry as my main path, I still keep up with some Crowley/GD/ceremonial reading and research. To me the two paths are interlinked. I am an initiate of the GD tradition and student of Thelema. (Technically, I’m also a Druid companion in AODA and an initiate of the Druidical Order of the Golden Dawn). I currently blend GD / A.’.A.’. and Druidry into my spiritual magickal practice.

Core beliefs: I believe there is a primal creative force that permeates everything in the universe. This force can be referred to as the “divine”. We are part of that force, as is everything else. All is connected. The totality of the divine force is beyond our current comprehension. I believe that through various magickal, meditational, devotional and other consciousness altering and focusing techniques we can raise our awareness of this divine presence/element both within ourselves and in the wider consensus reality (I follow a microcosm/macrocosm model). Through application of our willed (focused) awareness, we can affect change within ourselves and the wider consensus reality. We strive towards greater awareness/comprehension and connection/unity with the divine so far as we can comprehend it (the Great Work). In Druidry we conceptualise this process as the circles of Abred with Gwynfyd as the divine; in Thelema it is the union of Hadit and Nuit; in Qabalah it is the journey of the great return to Kether on the tree of life.”

A fragment concerning dreams

“…Dreams, as I’m sure you are aware, can be a very powerful ‘tool’. In the dream state ‘we’ are connecting directly with our subconscious, or, I guess, more correctly our subconscious takes the opportunity to bypass the ‘rational/controlling’ part of minds and leaves (mostly) important images in our conscious memory. It is a similar process to that which we use in guided visualisation meditations (sacred grove etc), except in a visualisation meditation we retain a greater ability for focus and control. In dream state that control is missing, but it gives the subconscious a freer rein on how to get its message across – which obviously can result in some confusion. Also in a meditation we are normally looking for ‘something’, whereas in dream state we are opening up to allow the subconscious the space to bring forward that which it thinks is important that we may, or may not, have been aware of. The ideal state of course would be ‘lucid dreaming’ which is a skill that apparently can be learnt.

I would say that dreamwork and interpretation is a very valid path and fits in nicely with the themes of the Ovate grade- thinking a head it may make for an interesting Ovate project. Keeping a dream journal has a long history in occult practice, and dream journeying is an essential part of the Shamanic path. I’m sure there are many good books and other resources available.

All that been said, however, I’m rubbish at dreaming and dream interpretation!! I guess that if we follow Jung, there are many universal symbols from the shared subconscious that will be presented in dreams, but my feeling are that you are probably best to ‘unpack’ your dreams yourself, then meditate on the images to create your own interpretation and ‘symbolic dream language’ – after all it’s your own subconscious mind you are communicating with, so you should already have the key to the symbolic code buried somewhere…”

Meaning of the Corieltauvi Grove symbol

Symbolism of the Seal

As part of the reinvigoration of the grove in 2006, it was decided that we would re-imagine the grove logo or banner, up to this point we had a “seedgroup” banner although it was little used and not hugely relevant to the grove. After brainstorming ideas the then grove membership came up with a rough design plan which was later interpreted and created by the Herald into this basic official banner/ logo:

De-constructing the logo, we can look at it as several parts.

First is the intertwined circle and square that forms the outer part of the logo. The intertwined circle/square is the OBOD order symbol of the Bardic grade.

The square represents the material universe, the nature and solidity of the four elements, delineates the four cardinal points, echoes the equilateral four armed cross which is the symbol of Earth, Malkuth on the tree of life, practicality, solidity and foundation.

The circle represents the spiritual, ethereal aspects of the universe, Kether on the tree, oneness, wholeness, that which cannot be confined to the mundane, Magick, spirit, divinity, the subtle energies.

The two shapes circle and square are intertwined to represent spirituality and practicality working together, supporting and inseparable to each other. Kether in Malkuth, Malkuth in Kether, The reality that is the spiritual nature of the practical world and our aspiration to be constantly aware of their co-dependence and inseparability.

The next part of the logo is the inner “knot-work” panel. The panel is adapted from a Pictish design found on a stone in Rosemarkie in Ross-shire. The intertwined knot-work quarters of the design represents the complex, yet supporting, nature of the elements, their aspect, movement and nature; their co-operation, interplay and balancing aspects of each other. If any part of the design is removed the symmetry is altered and fails. The creative forces working in harmony. The knot-work can also be seen to represent the members of the grove, their energies and relationships balancing, supporting and complimenting each other in an exquisite design.

In the central section of the logo are the Ogham sigils/characters of Oak and Ash. In the ancient forests that covered this region of the country, Oak and Ash were the dominant species. Although farming, building, urban and industrial development have radically altered our forest landscape the Oak and Ash still endure as the most dominant species. They are tied into the very fabric of the landscape around us, joined into the very energy and character of our tribal land.

The Oak Fidha “Duir” means “Endurance” and has associations of steadfastness, durability and strength. The Oak was considered one, if not the, most important trees in Celtic myth, shrouded with ideas of magic and sovereignty, often seen as a “door way” to the gods and the otherworlds (the word door originates from the Gaelic and Sanskrit word Duir”). Because of their long life, Oak trees were often the centre pieces of village gatherings and celebration as a symbol of continuity and tradition.

The Ash Fidha “Nuinn” means “rebirth and peace”. It is seen as a tree of transformation, a bridge between the worlds, spanning the micro/macrocosm, the realms of existence, this world and the other otherworld etc. the Ash is both masculine and feminine in energy giving feelings of balance, but also fluidity, a tree of assimilation, change and understanding.

Both the Oak and the Ash were sacred to the Celts and were considered trees of the summer. In Druidic tree lore the oak can be considered as the entrance of the sacred grove, Ash as the exit.

The “three part” aspect of the grove symbol also resonates the three circle of Abred (circles of existence). In the circles of existence (manifestation) the soul travels from the centre (Annwn) into the circle of Abred, outwards to Gwynfdd, then onto the limitless realm of Ceugant. If we look at the grove symbol we can say that the centre is the land, tradition and transformation (the Ogham); we travel out wards through the elements and with the support of the grove members (the knot-work); into a state of spiritual awareness and consciousness (circle and square) then out wards into the unknown….