Ovates – Greywolf's Lair

The New Year of the Diamond Dogs? 1

GreywolfJanuary 11, 20261 Comment

“And in the death, as the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare,
the shutters lifted an inch on Temperance Building high on Poacher’s Hill
and red mutant eyes gazed down on Hunger City.
No more big wheels. Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats,
and ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes,
coveting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers,
like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of LoveMe Avenue,
ripping and re-wrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now leg-warmers,
family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald.
Any day now.
The year of the Diamond Dogs.
‘This ain’t rock ‘n’ roll
This is genocide!’”

One of the things that has always appealed to me about the Druid path is its focus on the vital importance of the bardic arts. I was born with a soul-deep love of music, drawing, painting and storytelling, so those arts have always been hugely important to me. The 10^th anniversary of the death of David Bowie on January 10^th 2016 got me thinking about his art and its role in my Druidry.

I first saw Bowie live at Glastonbury Fair in 1971. As the bright Sun rose over Worthy Farm on the morning of Wednesday 23^rd June, Midsummer’s Eve, I roamed the festival field singing The Incredible String Band song, ‘Sleepers Awake,’ from their 1969 LP, ‘Changing Horses.’ It was a beautiful sunny morning and I didn’t want my fellow festival-goers to miss it.

Bowie started his set at 5am as the rays of the newly risen Sun illuminated the first pyramid stage. It took me a while to realise who he was. I remember saying to someone, “Isn’t that the guy who did Space Oddity?” Among other songs, he performed ‘Changes’ and ‘Oh! You Pretty Things.’

That first Glastonbury was a remarkable event, not least because it was free. Yes, you heard me. Free. Last year, tickets cost just shy of £400 each. Changes indeed. As Bowie's set progressed, more people woke up and some stumbled down to the stage. By the time he closed the set with ‘Bombers,’ a song about the explosion of a nuclear bomb, there were enough people awake to give him a decent round of applause. He had gone onstage thinking it might be his last ever gig. Our applause convinced him to carry on. Near the end of the set, he told us, “I just want to say that you’ve given me more pleasure than I’ve had in a good few months of working, and I don’t do gigs any more because I got so pissed off with working, and dying a death every time... It’s really nice to have somebody appreciate me for a change.” I like to think I helped a bit by waking people up just before he came on.

The next time I saw him was on The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2 on the night of February 7^th 1972. The change that had taken place in the intervening 8 months was extraordinary. The long-haired, hippy Bowie of Glastonbury was now the legendary androgynous sci-fi pop god, Ziggy Stardust. Backed by the band we came to know as the Spiders From Mars, he performed ‘Queen Bitch’ and ‘Five Years.’ I was transfixed, entranced. Having grown up as a weird kid, an outsider, a freak, I knew what a lonely, difficult existence it could be, exacerbated by being one of a handful of hippies in an area predominantly inhabited by skinheads. As Ziggy, Bowie demonstrated that it was possible to actively, openly and magnificently celebrate one’s weirdness. From that night, Bowie’s career took off and I was a devoted fan. Throughout the rest of his career, he showed himself to be a shape-shifter, constantly re-inventing himself. I've long regarded shape-shifting as one of the core abilities of a Druid, one frequently represented in legends recorded in the medieval manuscripts of Wales and Ireland.

June ‘72 saw the release of ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars’ LP, which I immediately bought and listened to over and over again.

‘Diamond Dogs,’ the opening monologue from which is reproduced at the head of this piece, came out in May 1974. It too was played repeatedly. The monologue, titled 'Future Legend,' is a prime example of seership mediated through art, like the awenyddion of medieval Wales who spoke prophecies in spontaneous verse. Such seership is central to the ovate path in Druidry. In 1974, I would sometimes roam the streets of my home town proclaiming 'Future Legend' loudly, on one occasion joined by friend and co-conspirator, John Wilde, who later became lead singer with the band, Expandis. The apocalyptic tone of the whole album seemed to perfectly capture the sense of a world spiralling uncontrollably into decadence and decay following the death of ‘60’s optimism. 1974 was also the year I discovered the Druid path.

The ‘Let’s Dance’ album, released in 1983, was Bowie’s most commercially successful despite being one of his least artistically satisfying. Even so, in between the Nile Rogers-produced pop songs was one gem, a remix of ‘Cat People (Putting Out Fire with Gasoline),’ the original of which graced the soundtrack of the 1982 film, ‘Cat People.’

This was adopted as the unofficial anthem of the British Druid Order on the day I asked Emma Restall Orr, craft name Bobcat, to become joint chief of the Order. Bobcat had been trying to persuade me to work with her since September 1993. In February of 1995, as we sat on a bench on Eastbourne seafront looking out across a grey, overcast, rough sea, I put the idea to her becoming joint chief. She said she would on one condition; that I allowed her to, as she put it, “Light a fire under the BDO.” I readily agreed, because that was exactly what I wanted. Her phrase brought to mind ‘Putting Out Fire with Gasoline.’ Bobcat turned out to be as big a Bowie fan as I am, having also found inspiration in him during a youth of ostracisation and rebellion. The fact that she is herself a Cat person made the track even more appropriate.

From the start of our working relationship, Bowie’s music was an important part of the bond between us. On our trips to America together, whilst being driven around US towns and cities we would sing the chorus to ‘I’m Afraid of Americans’ from the 1997 album, ‘Earthling:’

“I’m afraid of Americans
I’m afraid of the world
I’m afraid I can’t help it…”

We sang it in the same sardonic way that Bowie originally intended it. After all, some of our best friends are American. It has, however, taken on a whole new layer of meaning since the giant orange man-baby returned to the White House. With the change of an initial letter:

“Donny wants a brain
Donny wants to suck on a Coke
Donny wants a woman
Donny wants to think of a joke
Donny’s in America…
Donny looks up at the stars
Donny combs his hair,
and Donny wants pussy and cars
Donny’s in America…
and I’m afraid of Americans.”

Donny himself, of course, revels in the fact that the world is becoming increasingly terrified that his narcissistic petulance will plunge us into World War III, a war few of us are likely to survive.

But I digress. Or do I? After all, Druidry encourages us to honour and celebrate life and diversity, to work for harmony and with the spirits of Nature. Druidry should, therefore, encourage us to call out those who stand against peace and whose actions ravage our planet and threaten its inhabitants. The 18^th century Druid revivalist, Iolo Morganwg, gave his Gorsedd of Bards of the Isle of Britain the motto, “The Truth Against the World,” meaning that we have a moral and spiritual duty to speak out against those in power who would spread lies and disharmony among us, against their petty greed and personal aggrandisement at the expense of others, against their warmongering and unwarranted arrogance.

The last time I saw Bowie perform live was at the NetAid concert in Wembley Stadium on October 9^th 1999. Sadly, Bobcat couldn't make it. She was running a workshop in Ireland. The acoustics were terrible but his stage presence and the excellence of his backing band overcame them to turn in a wonderful set, starting with a pared-down version of ‘Life on Mars’ featuring just Bowie’s vocals and Mike Garson’s piano and ending with a rousing, foot-stomping rendition of ‘Rebel Rebel,’ a song which, perhaps more than any other, encapsulates all the reasons why people like myself and Bobcat love Bowie so much.

“You’ve got your mother in a whirl
She’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl
Hey, babe, your hair’s alright
Hey, babe, let’s go out tonight
You like me and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they’re playing hard
You want more and you want it fast.
They put you down, they say I'm wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on.
Rebel Rebel, you’ve torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!”

Over the 52 years I’ve been calling myself a Druid, it’s become apparent that many of those attracted to the path are, like Bobcat and myself, what used to be called ‘weird’ but is now fashionably referred to as ‘neuro-divergent.’ For those of us who are so strangely blessed and cursed, Bowie embodied a beacon of hope and empowerment in an often hostile and determinedly disempowering world. We followed his many Ch-ch-ch-changes and thought, if he can do it, so can we. As he sang on the Whistle Test that transformative night in 1972, we looked at her, “so swishy in her satin and tat, in her frock coat and bippety-boppety hat,” and thought, “Oh, God, I could do better than that.” So we embraced the Ch-ch-ch-changes and found ourselves ‘Loving the Alien,’ and our lives and the world were hugely enriched for it.

At the heart of Druidry as we practice it in the British Druid Order is the concept of awen, a Welsh word variously translated as ‘inspiration,’ ‘poetic frenzy’ and ‘flowing, feminine spirit.’ We see it as primarily a gift of the goddess Ceridwen, whose name means ‘Close sexual partner.’ It is the divine source that inspires all art. The art it inspires goes on the inspire creativity in others, who inspire others in turn. Thus the spirit flows between people and across time. Bowie was one of the purest embodiments of awen to have emerged during my lifetime. We were blessed to have him.

And if 2026 does turn out to be the year the orange man-baby in the White House and the bald man-baby in the Kremlin bring us World War III, I can only hope that enough of us survive to roam the radioactive streets repeating loudly to anyone left alive to listen or, if not, to ourselves:

“And in the death, as the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare….”

So, erm, Happy New Year, and let’s do everything we can to ensure it isn’t our last, and personally, while I'm still alive, “I want eagles in my daydreams, diamonds in my eyes…”

Thank you, David, thank you,

Greywolf /|\

Nos Galan Gaeaf – Night of Winter Calends

GreywolfOctober 31, 2024Leave a comment

“Hey-how for Hallowe’en!
A’ the witches tae be seen,
Some are black, an’ some green,
Hey-how for Hallowe’en.”
Traditional Scottish rhyme.

The Wheel of the Year rolls on, bringing us to the north-west of our circle and to October 31st, the festival known in Wales as Nos Galan Gaeaf, ‘the Night of Winter Calends,’ in Ireland as Samhain, ‘Summer’s End,’ and as Hallowe’en elsewhere. This is the third of the Teir Nos Ysbrydion, ‘Three Spirit Nights’ on which the veil between worlds is at its thinnest. It represents the conjunction of the elements of Water and Earth.
As at May Day, its opposite on the Wheel of the Year, Hallowe’en fires are lit on hilltops and cattle driven between them for protection and blessing. The Hallowe’en fires flare out in defiance of the coming winter dark, representing the Sun’s fire held in the wood that will blaze on our hearth fires, warming us through the cold months ahead. In some places, hearth fires are extinguished on this day and relit from the Hallowe’en fire. As at other fire festivals, people jump over the fires and blazing torches are carried around fields to ensure prosperity and protection. A variation on fire-jumping is to run sunwise (clockwise) around the Hallowe’en fires in a closing spiral. In a Health & Safety nightmare, it is said that the closer you can bear to get to the heat, the better the fortune you’ll enjoy during the year that follows.
In parts of Wales, there used to be fierce competition to see whose fire could be built highest and last longest, the whole day being devoted to carting as much flammable material as possible onto the chosen hilltop. The fire was lit to the blowing of horns and apples and potatoes were roasted in it while folk danced, leapt and whooped noisily around it. The cooked apples and potatoes were eaten while others darted through the fire and smoke, casting stones into the fire. When the fires had died down, everyone ran home pell-mell to avoid being caught by Hwch Ddu Gwta (pron. hooch thee GOOta), ‘the Tailless Black Sow.’ In Denbighshire, they cried:

Adref, adref am y cynta’,
Hwch Ddu Gwta a gipio’r ola!
Home, home, let each try to be first,
and may the Tailless Black Sow take the hindmost!

The sacred Druid Isle of Anglesey retained a fuller version:

Hwch Ddu Gwta a Ladi Wen heb ddim pen
Hwch Ddu Gwta a gipio’r ola’
Hwch Ddu Gwta nos G’langaea
Lladron yn dwad tan weu sana!

Tailless Black Sow and White Lady without any head,
May the Tailless Black Sow snatch the hindmost!
Tailless Black Sow of Winter’s Eve,
Thieves coming along knitting stockings!

It’s tempting to see “the Tailless Black Sow” as embodying the Hag of Winter, perhaps she who, in the form of a Sow, leads the enchanter Gwydion on his search for the wounded lord of light, Lleu Llaw Gyffes, in the Fourth Branch of Y Mabinogi. Perhaps the “White Lady without any head” is the winter Hag in human form. In Scotland, the Cailleach Bheur, the Hag of Winter, awakens on this night to begin her long, cold reign that lasts until the next May Day rolls around. As for the “Thieves coming along knitting stockings,” your guess is as good as mine.
In Wales, the bonfire was often followed by a communal feast indoors, after which songs were sung, stories told, games of skill played and divinations made. The veil between the worlds being so thin, this was a prime night for divination. A common practice was to mark stones and place them in a circle in the hot ashes of the fire. Finding your stone whole and undisturbed the following morning assured you of a good year ahead. A curious practice in Tenby was to drill nine holes in the shoulder-blade of a Sheep and sleep with it beneath the pillow. This is supposed to result in prophetic dreams and may be a variation on scapulomancy, the practice of divining from marks found on the shoulder blades of sacrificial animals which is attested in classical Greece and apparently still found in rural parts of Greece and Serbia.
Of all the nights of the year, Nos Galan Gaeaf is that on which ghoulies, geesties and long leggity beasties are out and about in greatest force. Witches take to the skies on broomsticks, making their way to the greatest Sabbat of the year. Gwyn ap Nudd with his white Hounds or his Saxon counterpart, Woden, with his ravenous Wolves ride the night at the head of the Wild Hunt, leading the souls of the dead towards their long rest in the worlds beyond. Meanwhile, warm indoors, we light candles in our windows to guide and welcome home the wandering spirits of deceased family members, inviting them to join our feasts, putting out food and setting places at table for them. As Druids, we often broaden this remembrance to all our ancestors, those of blood and spirit, and make offerings of food and drink, prayer and ceremony to all who have passed to the Otherworlds of the dead.

The above is extracted from BDO bardic course booklet 17, The Wheel of the Year.

In south-east England, where I was born and brought up, a lot of the excitement associated with Hallowe'en in the countries of the 'Celtic fringe' has been transferred to November 5th, Bonfire Night, following Guy Fawkes and his companions' unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. This is still enthusiastically celebrated by several Bonfire Societies in Sussex, one of the largest being in Battle, where giant effigies of present-day political figures are set fire to and exploded amidst much merriment.
'Trick or treating' remains popular amongst children at Hallowe'en. Often dismissed as an American import, its roots actually go back to Early Modern Scotland. The 'guising,' i.e. dressing up that goes with it has ancient roots and was originally designed to prevent revellers being identified either by their neighbours or by the nocturnal spirits who roamed the night. So frock up in your best fright wig. You'll be continuing an ancient tradition, and as my old friend, Robin Williamson, says, "If it's traditional that means it must be good!"
Blessings of Winter Calends,
Greywolf /|\

Nos Galan Gaeaf ceremony in our roundhouse. Photo by Morten Ris, 2017.

Celebrating May Eve/May Day/Calan Mai/Beltaine in Style!

GreywolfApril 29, 2024April 29, 2024Leave a comment

“With the merry ring, adieu the merry spring,
For summer is a-come unto day,
How happy is the little bird that merrily doth sing,
In the merry morning of May.”

Verse from the ‘Day Song’ sung on May 1^st at Padstow in Cornwall.

Green Man mask At this time of year in the UK, we’re peculiarly blessed with opportunities to publicly celebrate our Druid spirituality. May Day is one of our ancient festivals that has maintained a rich tradition of celebrations throughout the four nations, though often now celebrated on the first Monday in May, which was designated a bank holiday in 1978, rather than on May 1^st. It survived a 1993 attempt by John Major’s Conservative government to remove it as a bank holiday and replace it with Trafalgar Day in October. David Cameron’s Conservative-led coalition revived the idea in 2011, again without success. The reason for these attempts to suppress May Day is that it had become linked with International Workers Day, which grew out of a resolution passed by the 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International which called on “all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the eight-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace.” This was enthusiastically taken up by the Trade Union movement in the UK who organised colourful and well-attended marches across the UK on the day.

May blossom May Day’s origins are, however, far older, stemming from a pagan celebration of the arrival of the year’s summer half, just as Hallowe’en marks the arrival of its winter half. May Day marks winter’s last gasp, the onset of warmer weather, the return of green growth to the vegetable realm, the birth of wild and domestic animals and birds and thus fertility in general. It has always been one of the most widely and enthusiastically celebrated of traditional festivals throughout Europe.

May Day traditions include bathing one’s face in May morning dew to restore or retain a youthful appearance; young people cutting twigs from flowering May (i.e. Hawthorn) trees and using them as ‘May gads’ to lightly whip other young persons, particularly those they are attracted to; lighting pairs of fires between which domestic animals are driven to purify and protect them through the coming year; dancing, especially Morris dancing; dressing as animals or other non-human beings, a practice known in the UK as ‘guising’; electing a young woman to act as ‘May Queen,’ and often a young man as her consort; staging mock battles between the forces of summer, led by the May Queen and her consort, and the forces of winter, often led by an old woman who is often a man in drag; and decorating the home with seasonal flowers.

Many parts of the British Isles continue to hold May festivities in which members of the public may take part. Beltaine fires are still kindled in some parts of Ireland. Peebles in the Scottish Borders holds an annual celebration and a massive, and gloriously Pagan, Beltane Fire Festival takes place on Calton Hill in Edinburgh. In Wales, celebrations traditionally began with the lighting of a May Eve bonfire on Nos Galan Haf, the ‘Night of the Calends of Summer,’ followed the next day by dancing and the singing of May carols. If you fancy making a joyful noise, Cornwall has the May Horns celebration in Penzance, featuring a giant Crow and high-pitched whistles made from Sycamore; the Padstow ‘Obby ‘Oss festival; and assorted giants; Shropshire has the Clun Green Man Festival and other events at Shifnal and elsewhere; Sussex has its Jack-in-the-Green Festival centred around Hastings Castle but taking over the whole town; Morris dancers greet the May morning sunrise on the ridge above the Long Man of Wilmington.

Mythago Morris dance mask Most of these events are happy to have Druids simply turn up and take part as spectators. If you’d like to be more actively involved, you could contact the organisers and see if they’re amenable to having some Druidic input. Personally, I’ve been happy just to join in with the other drummers who attend the Jack-in-the-Green Festival in Hastings. In the 1990s, Tim Sebastion, late founder of the Secular Order of Druids, researched a local celebration in Frome that had died out and revived it with support from the town council, mayor and local traders. It’s still running as an annual event. Or you could join a Morris team. There are now a number of Pagan Morris sides in the UK. Many of them dress and dance in the ‘Border Morris’ style. Some weave dances into folk dramas depicting historical and/or legendary events. All are hugely entertaining and fun to hang out with. All eagerly welcome new recruits, whether dancers, musicians, or both.

The plethora of public May Day events throughout the British Isles mean that it’s not necessary to seek out a dedicated Druid grove in order to ceremonially celebrate the end of winter and beginning of summer.

Long Man of Wilmington, Sussex If you want something with a more specifically Druidic focus, there are groups who hold open rites at various sacred sites including the Long Man of Wilmington in Sussex, the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire, the Stanton Drew stone circles south of Bristol and the Avebury henge in Wiltshire. Many of these were inspired by the open Gorsedd founded by the British Druid Order at Avebury in 1993. Some use the original rite I composed for Avebury as a template. You can find a copy HERE.

An online search or a visit to your local library or museum may, as Tim Sebastion found, reveal specific local celebrations you might like to revive in whole or in part. The same may also reveal little-known local sacred sites that might provide a magical venue for your celebrations. If you’re lucky enough to have a decent-sized garden, a May Eve bonfire makes a great focus for celebrating the joy of summer’s return.

However you choose to celebrate, may your celebrations be truly blessed.
So may it be!

Greywolf /|\

And now, for your delectation and delight, here's Steeleye Span performing their excellent rendition of the Padstow May Day Song....

Spring Equinox – Alban Eilir – ‘Birth of the Fresh Quarter’

GreywolfMarch 19, 2022March 19, 2022Leave a comment

(The following is extracted from the British Druid Order bardic course, booklet 17)

“Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,
hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees.”
‘Early Spring,’ Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926).

The east, elemental Air, marks the spring equinox, Welsh Alban Eilir, ‘the Birth of the Fresh (or Green) Quarter,’ which falls on or about March 21st (September 21st in the southern hemisphere). In Western astrology, the Sun is now said to be entering the zodiacal sign of Aries, the Ram. In Vedic and Sidereal astrology, however, which are based on the actual position of the Sun relative to the stars, the Sun is entering the sign of Pisces, the Fishes. On the morning of the equinox, at least in the British Isles and equivalent latitudes, the Sun rises directly in the east. Day and night are of equal length. The divine child born at Midwinter now begins to develop as an individual, independent of its parents, still wide-eyed with wonderment but no longer content just to observe. Now the child is eager to experience all that the world has to offer. This is a time of balance between the long nights of winter and the long days of summer. Balance is a temporary state and, at this time, it is about to tip in favour of summer.

There is not a great deal of evidence for the marking of the equinoxes in British and Irish prehistory. A possible exception is the West Kennett Long Barrow (below) where, from floor plans, personal observation sitting atop the mound and compass readings taken both inside and above the chambers, the central passage seems to be aligned on the equinoctial sunrise. I say ‘seems to be’ because two things render accurate assessment difficult. One is that an enormous sarsen slab, some nine feet high and of similar width, stands across the entrance, blocking the light of the Sun from entering the passage. The other is that the passageway and chambers as we now have them are as reconstructed by the Ministry of Works following excavation of the site by Richard Atkinson and Stuart Piggott in 1955-6. When the excavation began, the passage and chambers were in a sorry state, the roof stones fallen in and the walls collapsed. Piggott numbered each sarsen stone as it was removed during the dig but there is some doubt as to whether his numbering was followed when the tomb-shrine was rebuilt. The roof was built from scratch, using sarsens found in situ but also a number of new sarsen slabs brought in for the purpose. The idea had been to reconstruct the passage and chambers as they were when the site was first created in the Neolithic era but there is considerable doubt as to whether anything like this aim was achieved and it seems that neither Atkinson nor Piggott were happy with the result.

West Kennett Long Barrow - photo by Greywolf

Although the basic alignment of the central passageway is unlikely to have been significantly altered during reconstruction, the entrance seems to have been drastically remodelled. The default for chambered tomb-shrines is for their entrances to be small and narrow enough to make access difficult. The Ministry of Works, however, wanted the entrance at West Kennett wide open to make visitor access easier. Unless records of the 1955-6 excavations show what the entrance was originally like, gauging its original size and position is impossible. Taking a middle line down the centre of the passage, the alignment is about 6 degrees south of east. A narrower entrance only slightly offset from the centre of the present one would, then, have allowed the equinoctial sunrise to fully illuminate the large rear inner chamber, even allowing for the fact that the Earth’s axis has tilted by about half a degree in the last 5,000 years. A narrow entrance in the exact centre of the current one would allow the same to occur about nine days from the equinox.

Clive Ruggles has set out the difficulties involved in calculating the equinoxes in prehistory. Deriving their exact timing by observing the position of sunrise would depend on having an absolutely flat horizon to work from, so any such alignment would necessarily be an approximation. Ruggles also reminds us of the difficulty of discerning what the equinoxes might have meant to our prehistoric ancestors. As so often in our exploration of the deeper roots of Druidry, we are left to speculate based on much later sources. We do have clear evidence that our ancestors throughout the British Isles recognised and marked the two solstices, so it may be that the equinoxes, being halfway between the solstices, were also of interest to them. Possible equinoctial alignments in the Orkneys include the stone circle known as Callanish 1 and the Cuween tomb-shrine.

Loughcrew, Ireland

At least one certain prehistoric equinoctial sunrise alignment does exist, dated to the 4th millennium BCE. This is at Cairn T, the largest of a group of megalithic tomb-shrines at Loughcrew, near Oldcastle in County Meath, Ireland (above). The stone first illuminated by the rays of the rising Sun is etched with more than a dozen Sun Stone, Loughcrew symbols that may represent the Sun (left). Those with ‘rays’ have either four, eight or nine. Another prominent decoration is of ‘fish-bone,’ or ‘rib-cage’ patterns enclosed, or partially enclosed, in ovoid cartouches. These have either seven or eight horizontal lines crossing an upright central stem. One of the largest stones lining the passage has a surface pock-marked with numerous deep, circular holes. When the cairn was excavated, a number of chalk balls found at the foot of the stone were found to fit exactly into these holes. It has been suggested that these may have represented stars against the darker surface of the stone ‘sky.’

The range of hills on which Cairn T stands is Slieve na Calliagh, ‘the Cailleach’s Mountain.’ The Cailleach is the Hag of Winter who rules the year’s winter half, from Nos Galan Gaeaf (Hallowe’en) to Calan Mai (May Day). Cairn T itself is called the Hag’s Cairn or the Tomb of the Ollamh Fodhla. Fodhla is one of three goddesses who gave their names to the island of Ireland. Ollamh Fodhla, ‘Professor of the Goddess of Ireland,’ whose given name was Eochaid, was a prehistoric pagan High King of Ireland said to be the originator of a dynasty that ruled for seven generations. He is said to have originated the Feis Temrach, ‘the Feast of Tara,’ a week-long gathering held every three years at which laws were promulgated, disputes settled, oaths made and bonds renewed.

Rather than celebrating the day itself, the spring equinox has long been used to calculate the beginning of a celebratory period marking the return of life to the land after the long darkness of winter. The date of the Christian festival of Easter is still calculated from the first full Moon after the spring equinox. This method of calculation, combining the cycles of Sun and Moon, is first recorded in Sumeria more than 4,000 years ago, where the New Year festival of Akitu, devoted to the Moon-god, Nanna, was celebrated over twelve days beginning with the first appearance of the new Moon after the spring equinox and ending with the full Moon.

Born in the Underworld, Nanna is the child of the sky-father, Enlil, and the corn-mother, Ninlil, conceived as Ninlil is bathing in a sacred river. This is reminiscent of the coupling of the Morrigan (‘Great Queen’) and the Dagda (‘Good God’), which takes place when the Dagda comes across the Morrigan bathing in the River Unius in Ireland. The Dagda is father to the Irish god of love, Aengus Og, and of Brigid, the patroness of bards. Nanna fathers the Sun-god, Shamash, and the love goddess, Inanna Inanna (right), associated with the planet Venus, love and fertility. These three formed the holy trinity of the ancient Near East, a position they retained for more than a thousand years. A British equivalent of Nanna may be Nudd (or Lludd) Llaw Ereint (‘of the Silver Hand’), Irish Nuada Airgetlam, or possibly Gwyn ap (‘son of’) Nudd, “whom God has placed over the brood of devils in Annwn, lest they should destroy the present race.” Gwyn is ruler of both the Underworld of the Dead and the Otherworld of the Faery Folk. His name means ‘white,’ with connotations of ‘sacred.’

Some believe the celebration of Easter to be a Christian adaptation of a festival devoted to a goddess of springtime and fertility called Ēostre in Anglo-Saxon, Ôstara in Old High German. Her name survives in the old Northumbrian dialect name for the month of April, Ēosturmōnaþ, ‘Ēostre’s month.’ Her name seems to derive from a Proto-Germanic word meaning ‘dawn, or morning.’ It has been suggested that the egg and the Moon-gazing March Hare were symbolic of her. In British folk tradition, the expression, “mad as a March Hare,” is based on the courtship displays of male Hares who, at this time of year, may be seen leaping in the air, racing around in circles and engaging in what look like boxing matches with each other. The Hare is recognised as a sacred animal of the Moon in cultures from Britain to China. One of the most famous appearances of a Hare in a native British spiritual context occurs in Cassius Dio’s description of the revolt of Boudica and her Iceni tribe against Roman occupation in 60 CE. Cassius gives the following speech to Boudica as she rallies her troops for battle:

“... we have ... been despised and trampled underfoot by men who know nothing else than how to secure gain. ... let us ... do our duty while we still remember what freedom is, that we may leave to our children not only its appellation but also its reality. ... Have no fear whatever of the Romans; for they are superior to us neither in numbers nor in bravery. ... Furthermore, this region is familiar to us and is our ally, but to them it is unknown and hostile. As for the rivers, we swim them naked, whereas they do not across them easily even with boats. Let us, therefore, go against them trusting boldly to good fortune. Let us show them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves.”
When she had finished speaking, she employed a species of divination, letting a hare escape from the fold of her dress; and since it ran on what they considered the auspicious side, the whole multitude shouted with pleasure, and Buduica, raising her hand toward heaven, said: “I thank thee, Andraste, and call upon thee as woman speaking to woman; for I rule over no burden-bearing Egyptians as did Nitocris, nor over trafficking Assyrians as did Semiramis ..., much less over the Romans themselves as did Messalina once and afterwards Agrippina and now Nero (who, though in name a man, is in fact a woman, as is proved by his singing, lyre-playing and beautification of his person); nay, those over whom I rule are Britons, men that know not how to till the soil or ply a trade, but are thoroughly versed in the art of war and hold all things in common, even children and wives, so that the latter possess the same valour as the men. As the queen, then, of such men and of such women, I supplicate and pray thee for victory, preservation of life, and liberty against men insolent, unjust, insatiable, impious, - if, indeed, we ought to term those people men who bathe in warm water, eat artificial dainties, drink unmixed wine, anoint themselves with myrrh, sleep on soft couches with boys for bedfellows, - boys past their prime at that, - and are slaves to a lyre-player and a poor one too. Wherefore may this Mistress Domitia-Nero reign no longer over me or over you men; let the wench sing and lord it over Romans, for they surely deserve to be the slaves of such a woman after having submitted to her so long. But for us, Mistress, be thou alone ever our leader.”

I’ve included the whole of Boudica’s address to Andraste as it is one of the few records we have of a native British prayer from this era, albeit recorded many years later by a writer who did not himself witness the events described. Boudica referring to the land of her birth as an ally certainly has a good, Druidical ring to it. Likening the Romans to Hares and Foxes and her own people to Dogs and Wolves also has an authentically animistic feel. Divining by observing the movements of a Hare is also in keeping with both ancient European paganism and more recent folklore. The release of the Hare being immediately followed by Boudica’s honouring of Andraste has led many to suppose that the Hare was sacred to Andraste and that, since the Hare is widely acknowledged as a sacred animal of the Moon, Andraste must have been a goddess of the Moon. The name Andraste may derive from Proto-Celtic *anderā, ‘young woman’ and *ster, ‘star,’ giving the meaning ‘Young Woman of the Stars,’ a reasonable name for a Moon goddess and one that would place her in a family of star goddesses among whom we would place the Welsh Arianrhod, whose name means ‘Silver Wheel’ and who is linked with the circlet of stars known as the Northern Crown (Latin Corona Borealis), called Caer Arianrhod in Welsh.

For a time, it did indeed seem as though the Hare was right, that Andraste and the gods favoured the Iceni and that Boudicca might actually succeed in driving the Roman occupiers out of Britain.

Traditional celebrations at this festival include decorating the house and your altar with Spring flowers, decorating and giving eggs as representations of fertility and rebirth, and baking and sharing hot cross buns, the cross representing the four major stations of the Moon; new, first quarter, full and last quarter. Hot cross buns were made in ancient Egypt in honour of the Moon. A tasty and thoroughly pagan example of quartering the circle.

Many blessings,
Greywolf /|\

Gwyl Forwyn, Imbolc, Candlemas: January 31st, February 1st & 2nd 3

The festival of Gwyl Forwyn (Imbolc, Candlemas), the goddess Bride/Brigid/Brigantia and the White Serpent of healing.

GreywolfJanuary 30, 2021January 30, 20213 Comments

“Today is the day of Bride;
the Serpent shall come from its hole,
I will not molest the Serpent,
nor will the Serpent molest me.”

This Scottish folk charm is from Alexander Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica. The Serpent referred to is the power of life and growth which, at this time, returns to us from its long winter sleep in the Underworld. To ensure peace with the Serpent, offerings of incense, milk or mead are often made.

Bride (pronounced ‘Breed’) is Saint Bride or Brigid, an early 6th century Irish nun, often known as 'the Mary of the Gael,' and sometimes as 'Christ's foster-mother.' In Wales, she is known as Ffraid. The widespread veneration of the popular Christian saint, however, is often carried out in forms like the prayer above that hark back to an earlier Brigid, a pagan goddess whose name derives from the Proto-Celtic Brigantī, meaning 'High, or Exalted One.' Her Irish incarnation is a daughter of the great Irish father-god, the Dagda, sometimes known as 'the god of Druidry.' The pagan Irish Brigid is associated with childbirth, poetry, smithcraft, sacred wells, the brewing of ale and mead and fire. A shrine containing a perpetual fire dedicated to her and tended by women devoted to her is believed to have become a convent of nuns devoted to her Christian namesake in Kildare ('Church of the Oak') in Ireland. Folk lore and folk traditions associated with the goddess seem also to have passed over seamlessly from paganism to Christianity. The following video explores Irish customs associated with this remarkable goddess turned saint:

Moving sunwise around the sacred circle, this festival has its home in the North-East, where the elements of Earth and Air combine. It marks the first of the English cross-quarter days, Candlemas, falling on February 2nd. February 1st is celebrated in Wales as Gwyl Forwyn, 'the Feast of the Virgin,' and in Ireland as Imbolc, possibly meaning 'in bud.' It marks the time when trees are beginning to bud, the first wild flowers are appearing, and ewes begin to lactate, all of which herald the coming of Spring and the return of life to the land. It is traditionally a celebration of lights, candles being lit to illuminate homes and places of worship. As at the other quarter days, offerings of food and drink, particularly milk, are put out for the Faery Folk or poured over standing stones.

In Scottish folklore, Candlemas is the time when a White Snake, the Serpent of Bride, emerges from underground where it spends the Winter months, a potent image of life returning to the land. The huge popularity of the canonized goddess in Scotland and Ireland ensured that her festival has been celebrated in those countries for the longest time and with the greatest gusto. In Scotland, the period of Winter from Hallowe’en to Candlemas is said to be under the control of the Cailleach, a mountain-dwelling crone who blasts the land with cold winds and frosts. According to one legend, on Candlemas eve, the Cailleach returns to the Land of the Ever-Young, the Otherworld of the Faery Folk, the ancestors and the gods. There she makes her way to the Well of Youth that lies in a wood at the heart of that magical land. Before the Sun rises on Candlemas morn, she drinks from the Well, returning to our world as the beautiful goddess Bride whose touch causes the grass to green and the white and yellow flowers of early Spring to bloom. Alexander Carmichael, who collected folklore in the Scottish Highlands and Islands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, describes one Candlemas custom as follows:

“On Bride’s Eve (January 31st) the girls of the townland fashion a sheaf of corn into the likeness of a woman. They dress and deck the figure with shining shells, sparkling crystals, primroses, snowdrops, and any greenery they may obtain. A specially bright shell or crystal is placed over the heart of the figure. This is called the guiding star of Bride. The girls call the figure Bride, and carry it in procession, singing the song, Beauteous Bride, Virgin of a Thousand Charms. The Bride maiden-band are clad in white, and have their hair down, signifying purity and youth. They visit every house, and every person is expected to give a gift to Bride and make obeisance to her. The gift may be a shell, a spar, a crystal, a flower, or a bit of greenery to decorate the person of Bride. Mothers, however, give a Bride bannock, a Bride cheese, or a Bride roll of butter. Having made the round of the place, the girls go to a house to make the Bride feast. They bar the doors and secure the windows of the house, and set Bride where she may see and be seen by all. Presently the young men of the community come humbly asking permission to honour Bride. After some parleying they are admitted and make obeisance to her.
“Much dancing and singing, fun and frolic are indulged in during the night. As the grey dawn of the Day of Bride breaks, they form a circle and sing the hymn, Beautiful Bride. Then they distribute the fragments of the feast among the poor women of the place.”

The arrangements for such folk celebration of Candlemas often seem to have been planned and carried out by women and girls, with men and boys being invited in if they ask nicely, behave themselves and show appropriate reverence for the goddess.
At home, you might celebrate Candlemas by lighting candles and decorating your dining table with Snowdrops, Dandelions or Primroses if they are available, and with shells, crystals and other things that will sparkle and shine in the candlelight.

An archetypal emblem of Brigid in Ireland is the Brigid's Cross, woven from Willow withies, straw, reeds, grasses, etc. This symbol seems to be another pagan continuation, the cross representing the four directions and a simplified form of the Solar wheel of the year. The following video gives a step-by-step guide to making one.

In the strange, dark times we have been experiencing for the last year, the idea of light and life returning to the world in any form seems a wonderful one to embrace. When we consider that the White Serpent has ancient roots in British and Irish traditions as a bringer not only of light and life but also of health and healing, it becomes even more enticing. In our tradition, the White Serpent is the regenerative power that combats and ultimately defeats the dark Serpent that embodies disease as readily as it defeats the dark and cold of winter. The conflict between the light and dark Serpents features in the most famous of the poems attributed to the legendary 6th century bard, Taliesin. In Cad Goddeu, 'the Battle of the Trees,' illness is characterised as "A Serpent, speckled, crested, a hundred souls for their sins are tormented in his flesh," while the bard himself says, "I was a speckled Snake on a hill, I was a Viper in a lake." Taking on the form of the White Serpent of healing, the Serpent of the goddess that brings new life to the earth each Spring, Taliesin defeats the dark Serpent of disease. Hence we should invoke the White Serpent with renewed fervour this year, that the healing, life-restoring power of the goddess of springtime flows once more through the land, bringing her gifts of light, life and healing to all. So may it be!

Blessings of Gwyl Forwyn, of healing, strength and renewal, to one and all,
Greywolf /|\

A Winter Healing Ceremony 1

A Ceremony of Healing with prayers and chants from the Druid tradition of Ynys Prydain (the British Isles) and ancient Gaul.

GreywolfOctober 31, 2020November 1, 20201 Comment

Hallowe’en, Nos Galan Gaeaf, Samhain, 2020
For thousands of years, indigenous peoples across much of the globe, including our European ancestors, conducted ceremonies during the winter designed to stave off the increasing waves of illness that spread across the land during the coldest months of the year. Wolf spirits were and are prominent in these ceremonies, from the Central Asian Steppes 4,000 years ago to the modern-day Pacific Northwest. Winter Wolf ceremonies were held in ancient Greece and Rome, where they were called Lupercalia. In Ireland, the young men known as Fianna were Wolf warriors. The Wolf clans who were central to these healing ceremonies usually consisted of similar youthful warbands who lived apart from the rest of society, charged with protecting their kinfolk from external threats. Whilst training as warriors, they also learned the legends of their tribes, traditional songs and poetry. They were warrior bards.
Each winter, they would create a ceremony during which they and the rest of the community would renew their bonds with their power animals through ceremonies that incorporated chanting, dancing and feasting. Each person present would have the opportunity to dance and sing their spirit animal, thus renewing the bond between them that would keep both healthy and strong through the winter months.
In the British Druid Order, we are reviving this practice with what we have dubbed a Winter Wolf Healing Ceremony. This year, we were to have held one in and around our roundhouse in Shropshire. Sadly, at the very time when we have so much need of such a ceremony, the increasing number of Covid-19 infections in the UK have prevented us from holding it.
We will not, however, let the impossibility of a physical gathering prevent us from going ahead. Here, then, are the bare bones of part of the ceremony, with accompanying sound files and videos where available.
We begin with a prayer to the old gods of the British Isles, from the creation of the world by Math and Don, how their children, Gwydion and Arianrhod, were given sovereignty over the forests and the stars, how Blodeuwedd became patroness of healing, and much more besides, all with a join-in chorus of, “we give thanks to the great gods.” Includes lyre accompaniment and birdsong. Apologies for the popping on the vocals, recorded in a rush...

This second prayer, ‘For Long Life and a Good Old Age,’ is possibly 8th century, from the 14th century Irish ‘Book of Ballymote’ and found in the British Druid Order's ovate course. Given that risk from Covid-19 increases markedly amongst the elderly, this seemed particularly appropriate.

… and here’s the video version that includes the lyrics:
<br>Next is a general ‘Chant for Healing and Protection,’ again derived from an early medieval Irish source. Our ancestors characterised disease as a dark Serpent bent on destruction, hence the singalong chorus of “beat the Serpent from its lair.” Please grab a drum or clap your hands and join in.<br>[media]https://app.hearthis.at/embed/4714433/transparent_black/?hcolor=&amp;color=&amp;style=2&amp;block_size=2&amp;block_space=1&amp;background=1&amp;waveform=0&amp;cover=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;css=&amp;hl=fr&amp;fs=1[/media]<br>… and here’s the video version that includes the lyrics:<br><iframe width="729" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2sTzHId0ONo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""><br>Now for the first of the animal chants, the Wolf Chant. This was given to me among the old stones of Avebury in Wiltshire and is an authentic native British Wolf Chant since I am authentically British, having been born here and lived here all my life, as have the families of both my parents for at least a thousand years. The gift of this chant came to me not long after I experienced a powerful vision of a Wolf during a ceremony in 1994. Again, please sing along and dance should the mood take you, even if your personal spirit animal is other than Wolf. Wolf is a sociable animal…<br><iframe width="729" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yq44JT4GRC0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""><br>Now we’ll alternate between other animals and Wolf, starting with the oldest of these chants, originating in an inscription to the Horse goddess, Epona, from 1st century Gaul. It consists of various names for the Horse goddess. Again, feel free to join in vocally, instrumentally and physically.<br><iframe width="729" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZS51ysaYoqE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""><br>‘Blessed Be, Earth’s Son’ is a second Wolf chant, this time using other names by which Wolf people are known. This reflects the ancient habit of not using the actual name of the primary totem animal during ceremonies but substituting descriptive titles instead. Again, sing, dance, live!<br><iframe width="729" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wOi4mBiswW4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""><br>The next chant is for the Deer people, specifically the Fallow Deer. As before, feel free to sing, drum, dance, clap and generally join in.<br><iframe width="729" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8mdd8xa1ch8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""><br>I’m afraid for any other animals, you’re going to have to add you own chants and dances. There are more in the BDO Druid course, but I don’t have time to record them now. So, since it’s always best to end on a howl, here’s the native British Wolf chant again. Enjoy!<br><iframe width="729" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yq44JT4GRC0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""><br>And so we conclude our ceremony by feasting and quaffing mead or ale, sharing some with our ancestors, thanking again both them and our gods.<br>Hale and blessed be!<br>Hale and blessed be!<br>Hale and thrice blessed be!<br>Greywolf /|\ Blaidd Llwyd – October 31st 2020

Next is a general ‘Chant for Healing and Protection,’ again derived from an early medieval Irish source. Our ancestors characterised disease as a dark Serpent bent on destruction, hence the singalong chorus of “beat the Serpent from its lair.” Please grab a drum or clap your hands and join in.

… and here’s the video version that includes the lyrics:

Now for the first of the animal chants, the Wolf Chant. This was given to me among the old stones of Avebury in Wiltshire and is an authentic native British Wolf Chant since I am authentically British, having been born here and lived here all my life, as have the families of both my parents for at least a thousand years. The gift of this chant came to me not long after I experienced a powerful vision of a Wolf during a ceremony in 1994. Again, please sing along and dance should the mood take you, even if your personal spirit animal is other than Wolf. Wolf is a sociable animal…

Now we’ll alternate between other animals and Wolf, starting with the oldest of these chants, originating in an inscription to the Horse goddess, Epona, from 1^st century Gaul. It consists of various names for the Horse goddess. Again, feel free to join in vocally, instrumentally and physically.

‘Blessed Be, Earth’s Son’ is a second Wolf chant, this time using other names by which Wolf people are known. This reflects the ancient habit of not using the actual name of the primary totem animal during ceremonies but substituting descriptive titles instead. Again, sing, dance, live!

The next chant is for the Deer people, specifically the Fallow Deer. As before, feel free to sing, drum, dance, clap and generally join in.

I’m afraid for any other animals, you’re going to have to add you own chants and dances. There are more in the BDO Druid course, but I don’t have time to record them now. So, since it’s always best to end on a howl, here’s the native British Wolf chant again. Enjoy!

And so we conclude our ceremony by feasting and quaffing mead or ale, sharing some with our ancestors, thanking again both them and our gods.

Hale and blessed be!

Hale and thrice blessed be!

Greywolf /|\ Blaidd Llwyd

October 31^st 2020

A Chant for Healing & Protection

A chant for healing and protection based on a poem in the medieval Irish Metrical Dindsenchas.

GreywolfApril 6, 2020April 6, 2020Leave a comment

The chant for which you'll find sound and video links below is extracted from one of the booklets of the British Druid Order's ovate course. It draws inspiration, language and symbolism from a poem in the medieval Irish Metrical Dindsenchas. The story in which the poem is contained describes actions taken by the Irish god of healing, Dian Cécht, to quell a disease outbreak by destroying the serpent that embodies the illness, reducing its remains to ashes and then washing them away in the purifying waters of a fast-flowing river (a reminder to keep up regular hand-washing).

In the medieval literature and later folk medicine of Britain and Ireland, disease is often represented as a dark serpent. Representations of sickness in animal form are common to many indigenous cultures, with snakes, lizards and toads frequently being the form taken. This suggests a very early and extremely long-enduring stratum of belief.

An obvious advantage of seeing disease in this way is that it gives spirit workers, often called by that overused Siberian term, 'shamans,' a clear, easily visualised image against which to work healing magic. My sense of the original Dindsenchas text is that it recounts precisely such a spiritual conflict against disease, one that is ultimately successful.

I should add that by no means all representations of serpents in our indigenous literature are dark and ill-favoured. On the contrary, there is a bright serpent of healing. Hence the long-standing link between serpents and medicine, pre-dating the Greek healer god, Asclepius, with his serpent-entwined staff, continuing to the present day with the caduceus wand of Mercury, wound with light and dark serpents, being the symbol of the modern medical profession. Also, I believe, accounting for the several representations of serpents coiled around lightning bolts that appear in Pictish stone carvings, a couple of which feature in the long version of the chant video.

In these stressful times, it seems particularly appropriate to release this chant online. Whether or not your personal belief system is animistic enough to believe that such chants have an actual impact on a physical illness, if the sound of the chant appeals to you, then joining in with it can certainly lift your metaphorical spirits. As I've found, even just listening to it lifts my spirits and leaves me smiling. If, however, your belief system is significantly animistic/shamanistic, then you may feel that, repeated worldwide and often, the chant may help us all get through this current crisis in a variety of useful ways.

So please do join in. Sing, drum, dance, howl, stomp, clap, holler and yelp along! Maybe fling wide your windows while you do (always allowing for the sensibilities of your neighbours)! Let's all boost our collective spirits!

Blessings to all,

Greywolf /|\

First, here's the 9 minute 35 second long sound file...

Now here's the video that goes with that 'short' version...

... and here's the extended, 1 hour 7 minutes video for those who want to get totally immersed in it... /|\

Credits: I composed the chant and recorded it on the desktop computer in my home office using a tiny lapel mic to multi-track the vocals and drums. The main drum is the frame drum I made myself a few years ago. It's painted with, among other things, a Wolf (surprise, surprise) and a bright Serpent of Healing. The second drum is another frame drum I made, with assistance from my son, Joe, and which I recently dubbed the Pretani Drum. Panned way off to the right speaker is a little clay drum a photo of which appears partway through the long video. It's based on a Bronze Age original that was found within 20 miles of my house. In the left speaker there's a larger clay drum based on an original apparently found at Avebury, again within 20 miles of my house. A picture of it also appears in the video. The original was claimed to be Bronze Age, but I think it may be Iron Age. I made the clay drums. The running water in the background is a recording of Borle Brook in Shropshire I made a few years ago. The photos are either by me or Elaine Gregory, who took the main photo which shows me drumming in St. Nechtan's Glen in Cornwall. The drum I'm playing in the photo is a Remo Buffalo Drum that I bought in Seattle and painted with Wolves, Eagles and Serpents. I put the videos together using the free, open-source OpenShot Video Editor.

A Prayer for Long Life & A Good Old Age

A pagan prayer from the 14th century Irish 'Book of Ballymote.'

GreywolfMarch 29, 2020March 29, 2020Leave a comment

The current Covid-19 outbreak is impacting our lives in many ways. How it will play out in the long term remains to be seen. In the meantime, we need to do all we can to keep ourselves and our families safe. Until a vaccine becomes available, the best ways to do this are by maintaining physical distance between us and washing regularly and thoroughly, especially our hands.

Of course, as spiritual beings, there are other things we can do. Those of us whose Paganism allows for the reality of entities existing in the realms of spirit whose influence extends into the physical, including the old gods of our lands, may choose to pray to those gods for their blessings and protection. Our ancestors certainly did just that.

The following prayer is found in the Book of Ballymote, compiled in County Sligo, Ireland, circa 1390, although the prayer itself is considerably older, dating perhaps from the 8^th century. Skeptics may argue that an 8^th century prayer can have no possible relationship to Druidry. There are, however, numerous references in the manuscript literature of Britain and Ireland indicating that Druids continued to play an active role in society at least until the 12^th century. It is certainly hard to see the prayer itself as anything other than pagan. I have not included a translation of two lines of Latin appended to the end of the original manuscript text since they were clearly tacked on in a half-hearted attempt to Christianise an otherwise splendidly pagan prayer. I defy anyone to locate a Biblical reference to ‘the Seven Daughters of the Sea’ who feature in the first two lines, while the 'Silver Champion' referred to in line 10 seems likely to be Nuada Airgetlam, 'Nuada of the Silver Arm,' sword-wielding equivalent to the Romano-British Nodens, who oversaw a large healing sanctuary at Lydney on the banks of the River Severn.

Note that illness is characterised in the prayer as a ‘two-headed adder,’ a ‘hard-grey serpent,’ and a ‘headless black beetle.’ It was extremely common for our ancestors to view disease as a dark creature, most often a venomous serpent. When combatting illness in spirit, attributing a form to it is extremely useful, providing a clear focus on what it is we are seeking to counteract and protect against.

This particular prayer seems peculiarly appropriate at the present time, given that the severity of the effects of the Covid-19 virus seems to increase the older one gets.

Here, then, is my English rendering of the text as it appears in the British Druid Order’s ovate course. Scroll down and you’ll find links to my Soundcloud recording and YouTube video of the prayer, accompanied on a Celtic lyre.

Blessings to all,

Greywolf /|\

"The cry of a worthy man upon the road, may it bless me on my journey into the Plain of Age:"

“I invoke the Seven Daughters of the Sea
who weave the threads of children for long life:
May three deaths be taken from me!
May three life-spans be granted to me!
May seven waves of good fortune be dealt to me!
Phantoms shall not harm me on my journey
a flashing breastplate keep me from injury!
My fame shall not be bound by death!
Let death not come to me till I am old!
I invoke my Silver Champion who has not died, who will not die:
May time be granted to me of the quality of pure bronze!
May my form be ennobled!
May my right be maintained!
May my strength be increased!
May my grave not be readied!
May death not come to me on my journey!
May my journey be successfully fulfilled!
May the two-headed adder not seize upon me,
nor the hard-grey serpent, nor the headless black beetle!
May no thief ever harm me, nor band of women, nor band of armed men.
May increase of time come to me from the King of All Being!
I invoke Senach [‘the Ancient One’] of the seven ages,
whom Fairy women have reared on breasts of plenty:
May my seven lights not be extinguished!
I am an indestructible stronghold,
I am an unshakeable rock,
I am a precious stone,
I am a fortunate one of seven riches.
May I live a hundred times a hundred years,
each hundred after another!
Thus I summon my good fortune to me.”

The prayer was recorded in our Shropshire roundhouse in August 2019, hence the crackling of the central hearth fire and the screaming sounds of Buzzards (Buteo buteo) wheeling around in the sky outside. The lyre accompaniment was added a few days ago here in my study at home using a little lapel mic as a pick-up. The lyre used is the one in the photos, beautifully made for me by Koth na Fiach of Dark Age Crafts. It’s of a type played in Europe from at least 800 BCE until around 600 CE, possibly later. The earliest recorded name for it is chrotta.

Naturfest 2019, a.k.a. the Annual Shamanic Gathering in Norway 4

Four days of sacred ceremony, workshops, drum-making, shamanism and Druidry, new friends, chaga, and a psychedelic duck!

GreywolfJune 28, 2019May 11, 20214 Comments

Just from a week in Norway during which Elaine Gregory and I spent four days representing the British Druid Order (BDO) at the Annual Shamanic gathering, organised, as ever, by Sjamanistisk Forbund (the Shamanic Foundation). This year’s event was called Naturfest and was amazing. So many wonderful, lovely people. Little kids and dogs of varying sizes wandering and playing in the sunshine, fantastic music, magical ceremonies, and a beautiful new venue, almost an island, connected only by a narrow isthmus with a road across it, surrounded by a clear blue lake and blessed with the characteristic Norwegian trees, tall pines and graceful birches. For us Druids, there was the added bonus of a young oak tree.

Friends old and new at Naturfest: Greywolf, Louise Degotte, Morten Wolf Storeide, István Zsolt Barát (see below) & Christoffer Skauge Eid, current head of Sjamanistisk Forbund.

When we go to Norway, one of the greatest pleasures is staying with our friends, Morten and Louise, two of the nicest, warmest, most generous human beings I’ve ever known. We also share a silly sense of humour, which always helps. Their house is surrounded by a wild flower meadow in the middle of a forest and is so soothing to the soul. There’s a lake within easy walking distance, Elk (aka Moose) wander past the back window, Deer graze at the front.

The venue for the gathering is about a two hour drive from their house. To stock up on supplies for it we crossed over into Sweden to a huge shopping complex. Kyrre had asked us to bring a British Druid Order flag to the event. We didn’t have one, so I designed one and ordered it online. Unfortunately, it hadn’t arrived by the time we left England. Wandering around the Swedish shopping centre, however, we passed a store where I saw a large psychedelic duck suspended from the ceiling. I pointed it out to the others and we went in to get a closer look. It was so weird, we just had to buy it, deciding it would make a good substitute for the missing BDO flag. We called it PD, short for psychedelic duck.

We arrived, unpacked and settled into our tiny attic room in time for the opening ceremony which began up by the barn that was being used as office space, market and healing centre for the weekend. From there, we made our way to the central ceremonial fire. Two ceremonies then celebrated the feminine and the masculine before a sharing circle brought the first evening to a close.

Opening ceremony, Naturfest 2019. Photo by Morten.

Next day there were traditional games, a workshop on Sami healing led by Robert Vars Gaup, a nature walk and the first part of a drum-making workshop, among other things. It was a very crowded schedule, with events running right through Friday and Saturday nights as well as all day.

After 45 years as a Druid, it is my life and I know no other. Living in the British Isles, I forget that there are places where Druidry is little known. Norway is one of those places. When organiser, Kyrre Franck, asked if there was anything Elaine and I wanted to do other than the chaga ceremony we were helping out with, we couldn’t think of anything in particular, so he suggested a sharing circle about ceremony. I was a little concerned that the sharing circle was booked for 11 o’clock at night, the chaga ceremony for 2 o’clock in the morning! I had forgotten that, at Midsummer in Norway, it doesn’t actually get dark. However, once word got around that there were two Druids on the camp, people started asking if there was going to be a workshop on Druidry, so I asked Kyrre if we could fit one into the already very packed schedule. He said he’d see what he could do and, 10 minutes later, a handwritten poster in big blue letters was pinned up above the printed timetable announcing a Druidry workshop in the Lavo (a sort of wooden tipi) at 12 noon on Sunday. We’d suddenly got star billing and had to figure out how to live up to it!

Our sharing circle was fun, though I’m never all that comfortable with the format. The chaga ceremony was very good, as they always are. On this occasion, we had to contend with a plague of midges and the fact that an amplified open mike night was being held as part of the gathering not far away from where we were doing our preparation for the ceremony. In making a chaga ceremony, it’s necessary to spend about four hours preparing the chaga, boiling the water, adding the chaga a small handful at a time, stirring the pot, chanting, singing, drumming, making prayers and offerings to the spirits, in particular to Nivvsat Olmai, the chaga and birch tree spirit. Chaga (a woody fungus that grows on Birch trees) is already blessed with many healing properties. By adding this ceremonial element to the brewing, we seek to enhance those existing properties and maybe add a few more.

Our set-up for brewing chaga in the Lavo. Photo by Greywolf.

When the brew was ready, we carried it down to the open air ceremonial circle on the site, with its central fire pit surrounded by stones. Elaine welcomed folk into the circle via the eastern entrance and then remained to guard it. Yes, although it was 2am, people still came! Morten and Louise conducted the ceremony. I prowled around the outside of the circle sunwise with my drum. One particularly memorable part of it was when Morten set up a heartbeat rhythm with his drum as he circled the ring of people sitting on the ground while I drummed the same heartbeat rhythm from the outside. For the people between the two drums, the vibrations must have been quite strong. During the ceremony, the Moon rose from the forest treetops across the lake. Not long after we finished the ceremony, the Sun rose to join it.

Morten, Elaine, Louise, Greywolf: the 3am Chaga crew. Photo by ?

We finished at 3 am. At 4 am there was to be a men’s sweat lodge, which I was booked into. In the event, I helped a little with the building of the fire but then had to make my apologies and leave, realising that, having been up all night, I was simply too tired.

Among the many events across the weekend, I was intrigued by a series of workshops being given by a Tuvan shaman called Dimitrij Markov. Dimitrij, turned out to be a really nice guy with a dry sense of humour. In his first session, he showed us how to build a spirit house. This consisted of sticks of firewood arranged in tipi shape, modelled around slabs of butter and cheese and set on a strong cardboard base. The whole thing was then placed on the central fire as an offering to the ancestors. Dimitrij conducted the workshop in Norwegian. I know hardly any Norwegian, but was able to follow what was going on by the few words I could pick up and Dimitrij’s actions. I noted that he always went sunwise around the fire, just as we do in Druidry.

Dimitrij placing the Spirit House on the fire. Photo by Elaine.

An outstanding feature of Dimitrij’s ceremonial creation is his costume, hung with colourful plaited cords, bells, signs and symbols, topped off with an extraordinary headdress comprised mainly of Eagle feathers. These he dons immediately before ceremony begins and takes off as soon as it is finished. His ceremonies often end with him standing quietly for a few seconds, then saying, “That’s it,” walking out of the circle and disrobing.

Dimitrij in ceremonial costume. As my friend, Leon Reed, says, "Wear your power." Photo by Morten.

One of the things I love about these gatherings is that you get to see both the surface differences in the ways we work and the underlying similarities that make it so easy to understand and communicate with each other across cultures.

Saturday night was the Sami Midsummer ceremony, which I’d been part of on our last visit two years ago. This year’s was conducted by Kyrre, Robert and Elin Kåven, a noted Sami musician. Offerings of seasonal flowers from everyone were placed around the central fire with prayers made for those in need. There was much drumming and dancing. Central to the rite was the raising aloft and honouring of a wreath of greenery tied with coloured ribbons, raised in honour of the gods of earth and sky.

Sami Midsummer Ceremony. Photo by Elaine.

Later that evening, Rotha (it means Roots) treated us to a fabulous musical set. They are a three-piece consisting of guitar/bazouki, Elin on vocals, and percussion, the latter including the biggest frame drum I’ve ever seen. The sound blended traditional and modern really well, while several lyrics were drawn from the Icelandic Eddas. Morten tells me that although the musicians are Sami, they draw much of their inspiration from Norse mythology. They are very, very good.

The band having done their encores, having been up until at least 3am the night before, we were all prepared to go to bed when Kyrre announced an addition to the program: a Wolf healing ceremony with Dimitrij, due to take place around the ceremonial fire at 1am. Had it been anything other than a Wolf ceremony, I would have gone to bed. As it was, Morten, Louise, Elaine and I all went down to the ceremony site. Dimitrij donned his costume, pulled on his headpiece and picked up his drum. Having promised my own drum a rest after the exertions of the Sami Midsummer ceremony earlier, I had left her hanging on the wall of our room, so was unable to join in the drumming. Dimitrij made up for it. His drumming began fairly quietly but quickly gained pace and volume. He began waving his drum back and forth. He started behaving as Wolf, lowering his body. At one point, he fell over and rolled on his back, kicking his legs in the air. Rising again, he stood still for a while, lifting his drum towards the sky, which was as dark as it gets, though still not dark enough for stars to be visible. He began to howl. I began to howl. Some of the others began to howl. After drumming vigorously for about half an hour, during which Dimitrij continued to move and I continued to rock from one foot to the other, we stopped. Dimitrij stood still for a few moments, facing the central fire, then said “That’s it.”

Dimitrij making milk offering. Photo by Morten.

During the ceremony, I felt a kind of expansion from my primary place of power, located near my solar plexus. The following day, I woke up feeling better than I had for ages, emotionally, physically and psychologically. Further proof that, as I said during our sharing circle about ceremony, “This shit works.” Thank you again, Dimitrij.

After a few hours’ sleep, at midday on Sunday it was time for our Druidry workshop. Elaine and I had discussed a brief outline which we followed, allowing space for whatever the awen dictated to happen. We opened our circle as usual with calls for peace at the four quarters, wove the circle, invoked the powers of the four directions, honoured the spirits of place, the ancestors and the old gods of our lands, in all of which Elaine took the lead. I then spoke of the survival of Druidry for many centuries after the Roman invasion of Britain in 55 CE, through to the time when the great Welsh and Irish legendary tales were written down. I told the story of Ceridwen and Taliesin and the brewing of the cauldron of inspiration. We then chanted the awen, filling the tall wooden structure with our voices so that they rolled and echoed in tumbling cascades of sound. It was beautiful. Then, having started late due to the previous workshop overrunning, we hurriedly closed our circle and left to allow the next workshop to begin. Afterwards, we were told of overflowing emotions and of visions occurring during our session. These things are always reassuring that we have done our job well. Many thanks to all who came and made ceremony with us, both seen and unseen.

Also at the camp, and another great guy, was István Zsolt Barát, founder and head of the Four Elements School, ceremonial leader, healer, singer, artist, drummer and a traditional bearer of Hungarian Shamanism, which he studied in Carpathian region. He has worked as co-organizer of Kurultai, the largest gathering of Central Asian tribes, a biannual festival that gathers up to 300,000 people.

A remarkable woman we had made ceremony with two years ago in Sweden, Inger Lise Nervik, was also there. She’s one of the organisers of Sjamanistisk Forbund and co-founder of the Beaivi Shamanic School. So many other great people it would take a book to name them all. What characterises them all, apart from our shared spiritual vision, seems to be a wonderful, off-the-wall sense of humour. This, I think, is one of the most important tools we have in our line of work.

Greywolf chatting with Inger Lise, Elaine in background, Louise in foreground, back to camera. Photo by Morten.

Speaking of which, back to the duck. Sunday morning, I got up early and decided if we were going to introduce the camp to the duck, it would have to be today. Fetching the foot-pump, I set to work and PD grew and grew and was a magnificent sight to behold. He proved a considerable hit with the campers, especially the smaller children, who were soon climbing all over him. Then, at the end of the day, the moment came to launch PD on the lake. It had to be done. Two of the younger campers came with us, including new friend, Jorgen, whose first shamanic camp it was. PD was duly launched onto the water, carefully roped to shore as we had no idea of the currents or of PD’s manoeuvrability. Stripping to my underpants, I climbed onto PD’s back and set sail. It was the most wonderful fun I’ve had for ages. PD was very comfortable and I could happily have floated off on his back to who knows where, but time being pressing, after much splashing, giggling and ill-advised photographs, I clambered back onto the jetty. Our two young friends then took their turns, Jorgen attempting running dives, the second of which sent PD onto his side and Jorgen into the very cold water. Fortunately, he’s a good swimmer and after a little reassurance, PD was happy too. Thus, amidst much laughter, our time at Naturfest came to an end.

Greywolf enjoys the first voyage of PD, the Psychedelic Duck. Photo by Elaine.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that very early on the morning after our chaga ceremony, I was fetching a few things from the car when a tiny just fledged bird landed on my arm. I think he was a Goldcrest. Having latched his little talons into my coat, he started preening his feathers, shaking himself and looking around, then doing a bit more preening. After a while, it became obvious that he wasn’t going to leave without some encouragement. I moved towards what looked like a good perch for a small bird, shook my sleeve gently and he fluttered off. It was a small, magical encounter, adding one more joyous element to a wonderful weekend.

After a couple of days back at Morten and Louise’s house, it was time to head home. Before we did, however, Morten had one more surprise for us. Bringing out a familiar flight case, he opened it to reveal The World Drum. This extraordinary shamanic instrument was created by a Sami drum-maker following a vision that Kyrre Franck had. The Drum has spent many years travelling all over the world, crossing cultural, linguistic and political boundaries, uniting people with its message of care for our Mother Earth and peace between her children. The British Druid Order first hosted the Drum in the UK in 2008, visiting Dragon Hill and Avebury. In 2013, we journeyed with her to Glastonbury Tor, Anglesey and many other places. It was so good to see her again. A wonderful close to a beautiful trip...

Elaine and Morten with The World Drum and the many messages she carries between groups, cultures and traditions around the world. Photo by Greywolf.

I’m already looking forward to next year!

Oh, yes, and that BDO flag I ordered arrived while we were away. And here it is:

Elaine and Greywolf modelling this year's most essential accessory, a British Druid Order flag! Photo by Garth.

Beside the Brook (May Day 2018) 2

GreywolfMay 1, 2018May 1, 20182 Comments

It being May Day and the weather cool but fair, I wandered through the woods and scrambled down to a hidden hollow by the brook, where water tumbles over rocks and makes a magical sound that eases that slide into reverie in which awen flows and words emerge. With mobile phone as notebook, I jotted down the basis of this poem. It hasn't reached its finished state yet, at least I don't think it has, perhaps it never will, but I wanted to share it now, while the inspiration is still fresh. I am grateful for the gift of a poem made from just the interweaving of awen with the spirits of a special place and time... /|\

Beside the brook I sat a while
and watched the water flow
through the lichened rocks below
with rush and tumbling foam.
Astride a lichen-cushioned log
I perched and heard Sabrina’s song
as glistening waters ran their course
across the ages long.
Ancestral race, this mystery
had so sat contemplating,
this unceasing rush through time
on to an ever waiting sea.
Spirit-full and ever changing,
silver flow will make its way,
stopping not for tree or boulder,
save to skirt them both around,
for water’s wisdom is the gift
of ever finding ways anew,
unerring and unstoppable,
ageless and unwavering,
yet constantly renewed.
And so to you, great goddess,
I give thanks beside your play,
for filling all my senses
on this first day of May,
reminding me that time and tides
will bear all things away,
and for the gift of awen,
thus to weave these words in rhyme,
from mortal to immortal passed
until we merge in time.

Composed May 1^st 2018
White Horse Beltaine Camp