The Path of Druidry Ch. 2

Chapter 2 delves more into getting started with communing with nature, getting out into the natural world where ever you may be. If you are in the city, you can still find nature in a park, or even just by having plants, a balcony garden, something of the sort where you can go to be quiet and peaceful.

Walking, as many of you may already know, can be like a meditation. Walk with clarity and open mindedness. See what you cannot see. Listen to the sounds, feel the air, the area, the spirits, the animals and plants as you walk. Refrain from using your eyes so much as we have already learned to depend on them to the point of missing the things that lie deeper. Walk with your "soft eyes" on so that you feel and hear what is around you. Do not depend solely on your vision.

To get started, concentrate on breathing, bringing yourself into a meditative state. Do not go completely under, remember, you are going to be walking in nature. You need to be safe first and foremost and not watching where you are going is not safe. This is a time to "get out of your head" and focus on what is around you. Hear, touch, and feel what is happening around you as you walk.

Sacred space is a key word in this chapter and it is defined as any space around you which you help high. Any space can be sacred and as a druid, generally we consider all space sacred.

The book goes on to talk about the guardians of the place, the older more mature trees that have been around to watch over all around would be considered guardians of the territory. Are there any in your area? Do the feel different then other trees  Does the space around them feel different? Can you feel what energies stronger from some trees then others?

The chapters discusses it's idea of the different realms, heaven, etc using Annwn, Arbred, and Gwynvyd. It talks about the circle with Annwn in the middle, the cauldron of nourishment and life. Arbred being where we are, the circle around Annwn, and then Gwynvyd being the realm of wisdom and light, around the outside.

So, in completion of this chapter, the Nature Ray is fulfilled by walking every day, even if only for  a few moments, to recharge and get your "green self" moving... The knowledge Ray for this chapters is your walks taking you deeper into your knowledge of your area and your oneness with nature. and the Devotional Ray is your relationship with your landscape, your natural area. 

The Path of Druidry Ch. 1

So, this is another workbook. She starts out explaining what Druidry is and how it can fit into modern day life. Great place to start. We are not all long white beards and grey robes carrying staffs and chanting spells.. Well, maybe we chant spells and some of us have beautiful staff, but i promise I do not have a long white beard. My grey cloak is very cool though. My sister made it for me. :-)

The first exercise is a basic meeting with your/my druid teacher, or my druid in my grove. This is something that I have been doing for a while now so I felt a bit like a cheater but followed the lesson anyway and met with you druid. Yes, he is the white beard and grey robe. Calm, quiet, and wise with an air of peace to him. We sit on either side of the fire burning in the pit surrounded by water with a ring of stones holding it, as is always at the center of my circle. The book wants us to think and meditate on the word Druid. What does it mean to you/me. What experience does this invoke... Then it has you/me wake up and take notes about the experience.

So what came to me. This druid is my teacher, my guide. I did not leave this meditation just to this as I have done this previously. What I hope to get out of Druidry is peace of mind, peace in general and an understanding and way to make it through this world as whole and complete as I can. In this meditation i did, however, ask for guidance as it is what I have been seeking for a long time. I envisioned myself helping someone. Flashes if my shop, which does not physically exist at this point. I still have a feeling of young people or children around me which makes me so happy. and I see myself doing what I want, not what is expected of me. This is exciting for me as I have always ended up doing what is expected, not what I wanted. Even when I try to hard to do what I want.

Notes I took at the end:
What are my goals in the study and practice of Druidry?

• peace within myself and in this world
• security of mind and spirit
• life friends
• confidence and courage
• to be ok and at peace with me. 

Here's the start of something that it seems, did not get finished. 

Hear the rumble deep within

low deep, a tremble, deep sound

resonates, the flicker of a leaf

stone, sing together, a hum of the earth

Chapter 1

The basics of Druidry. sacred space. meditation, Nwyfre - energy connecting us to all things - dragon energy.

This chapter talks about what to keep around you to be druid. What it means, how to start this path, this journey. It talks about talking time each day, green time I think that book called it, to be in nature. Even if you are in the middle of the city, look out the window at a tree. Take time, the book says, three times a day, for yourself to commune with nature, to be one with it. What a beautiful thought but at this point in my life, not really possible. I am, however, working on twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. I have not managed it yet though. For me, committing to something like this is difficult. Why, not really sure, but it just is. I will though. Something I want so badly to do. Hoping that if I don't get it right away, I will once the weather is nicer and it isn't so cold.

A journal of what we see each day during each medition or green time. did you walk in a park, sit under a tree. How did you spend your time. what was the weather like, what did you feel. Keeping a journal will help to bring this all together. you will also start to notice the patterns in the world around you. Over the next year, you will learn the path of the green. When the leaves sprout, fall, when things turn green, yellow, are birthed, die. Everything runs in a circle again and again each year. You will learn this circle for your area.

This course is presented in Rays... as in the rays in the druidic symbol below...

The nature ray - the study of nature and our surroundings, often practiced in the open air.
The knowledge ray - the study of myth and the inner realms
The devotional ray  - developing an appropriate relationship with the worlds.

The exercises will be given pertaining to these three rays...

Watch for the next post for Chapter 2!!!  

The Pulse

The pulse surrounds
I hear the music
Through my feet
The sound of time
The history of being
Moves me along
My path of ages
The rhythm beating
The voices calling
As the leaves spin
And twirl their dance
of longing
Under the touch of the sun
The view from above
The prism of a drop
Of water as it
Travels through the breeze
Crawls down the green blade
To reach the deep dense
Earth as
The pulse surrounds

written by Mystical Journey