A Druid’s Web Log – December 2020 Finding hope in the darkest of days

Thanksgiving has now passed and despite the pleadings of the CDC, millions of Americans have defied the odds and flown or driven to be with their families. In a few weeks’ time the all too predictable number of Covid-19 cases and deaths will skyrocket, even higher than the surge we are seeing now, and the darkest days of the year and of the pandemic will be upon us.

The sadly politicized Supreme Court, now dominated by religious Conservatives, has just given churches the green light to open their doors, despite the evidence that singing and congregating in churches is a major source of virus spread. The only way to create confidence in the court again is to have an equal number of Liberal and Conservative judges, as far as I can see. Even Pope Francis has issued a statement about this by saying; “Looking to the common good is much more than the sum of what is good for individuals. It means having a regard for all citizens and seeking to respond effectively to the needs of the least fortunate”.

One would think that supposedly devout individuals would try not to do things to kill themselves or others. I think the best thing a church can do at this time is to hold services on line and turn over their nicely heated buildings that have bathrooms and kitchens to the increasing number of homeless. Poverty is sky rocketing as unemployment runs out and the eviction moratoriums are ended. The Republican controlled Senate refuses to do anything to help the poor, of course. They want to hand over a disastrous economy to Biden so they can blame him for it.

I was recently asked what I as a Druid would recommend to give people hope. It’s fall now in this hemisphere and I suggested spending more time in nature. The dry and brown vegetation holds a powerful secret this time of year. Look closely and you will see seeds, just waiting for the wheel to turn and the warm sun and gentle rain to coax them open.

There is hope in every season; see the rainbow sparkles on the snow and hear the wind sighing through drooping ice-covered boughs. Notice the fresh green shoots and translucent leaves that unfurl in the spring sunshine. Poke your nose into a freshly opened rose under the summer Moon. Savor the smell of wild grapes and the crunch of russet leaves on a fall excursion.

The ancient Druids taught us not to fear death (the dying is the hardest part). They sang that life and death were part of a single cycle of growth, decay and rebirth;

“According to your [the Druids’] authority, the shadows do not strive for the silent abodes of the underworld and for the pale realm of the deep sovereign of the dead: The same spirit directs the limbs in a different region (orbe alio). If you sing an approved truth, death is the centre of a long life”. – Marcus Annaeus Lucanus From Bellum Civile

There is always hope, even in the darkest season of the darkest year. Soon it will be Solstice and the light will return. Have courage my friends and please take care of yourselves and each other!

Below you will find the usual assortment of Moonthly offerings; Book news, Archaeology, Herbs, Health, Climate, Nature, Fairies, Religion, Celts, Arts and more. *Reminder* you can purchase all my books and videos at here. Enjoy the read!

BOOK NEWS

Nicholas Brink has penned another wonderful review of my third novel “Priestess of the Fire Temple – A Druid’s Tale”. That book is currently between printings – you can still purchase signed paper copies from me.

Book Review: Priestess of the Fire Temple by Ellen Evert Hopman, Woodbury, MI: Llewellyn Publications, 2012 (due to be re-released shortly by Oak Spirit Publishing, Amherst, Massachusetts. Stay Tuned!)

After reviewing the first two book of Ellen Evert Hopman’s Druid’s Tale Trilogy I had to read and review the third, Priestess of the Fire Temple. The energy and excitement of each book pulls the reader into the next, carrying the reader through three generations of Druid priestesses, Ethne, Aife, and Aislinn, and three Druid schools: The Forest School, the Druid Isle (Iona), and now the Fire Temple.

At the time of the invasion of the Roman Church with their goal of despoiling the Earth and destroying the Druids, each priestess was pulled into this destructive conflict, and each found ways to preserve the ways of the Druids by retreating to their school hidden away from the invading Romans. The excitement of the journey of each Priestess makes these books difficult to put down. But behind the excitement of these journeys, Hopman has a deeper intent of teaching the Druid beliefs and their ways of living, to learn the power of medicinal plants and the power of word in poetry and stories in the Priestess of the Forest.

The power of the word when spoken with reverence and love can be healing, but this healing of the word has been lost over the last 2000 years as we have come to value rationality. This power of the word though, is now being relearned as people return to their roots in the ancient ways. In The Druid Isle, the power of self-mastery, mastery over the emotions that interfere with reverence and love, leads us to find the love of the Great Earth Mother. Finally, to understand most deeply the messages that come from our Mother, messages that are seen in the stars, sun, moon, and the perpetual fire, are found in Priestess of the Fire Temple.

A central message of all three books though, is the message of awakening to the power of living in oneness with our Great Earth Mother, feeling her love with reverence and appreciation for what she provides. Now in the 21st Century this message is of utmost importance as we have continued to despoil the Earth as prompted by the biblical tenet that we have dominion over her. The Earth centered message of the Celtic Druid of what our Earth Mother provides has been lost as we have sought to control her. Now is the time for us to take to heart the ways of the Druids by returning to their Earth Centered ways. I am excited about learning the magical ways of the Druids as my life evolves into the New Age to again listen to and live in oneness with the Earth. My practice and teaching of ecstatic or shamanic trance, a way researched and shown to us by Felicitas Goodman, is a beginning.

In the Priestess of the Fire Temple, Aislinn is raised in a Druid center where the invading Roman Church has growing power over the people. Though Aislinn loves the Mother Earth and the medicinal plants our Mother provides, her step-mother, the queen, is into the glitz of her role as queen and does not approve of the wild ways of Aislinn and her teachers, the Druid priest and priestess of the kingdom. Her father, the king, retains his love for the Druid ways, but is also caught in his kingly power and lives between these two worlds.

This struggle between the two worlds is a struggle frequently seen where the transition from oneness with the Earth to the control of the Earth is found. The Danish King Hrothgar as described in my book Beowulf’s Ecstatic trance Magic is in a similar struggle in the Nordic world. With Aislinn’s escape from this conflict and her unfulfilled marriage to a prince of another kingdom, a marriage arranged in an attempt of control to bring peace to these two kingdoms, she finds her way to the Fire Temple where she again is able to live her life connected to the Earth in the ways of the Druids. Near the end of her father’s life, she is called back to his side because of his love for the ways of the Druids. At the time of his death the ways of the Druids are again revealed in the beauty and love of our Earth Mother.

The Druids’ need to go into hiding to save their ways from the invasion of the Church is again coming out of hiding to us in the 21st Century as seen in the writing and lives of Ellen Evert Hopman and many other proponents of the Druids, and among the indigenous people of the Earth. This is an exciting time of transition into a new Earth centered world, a transition that comes with much conflict and violence because of the fears of those hanging onto the old ways. As described by German historian philosopher in his book, The Ever-Present Origin, we have evolved through four eras of consciousness with each transition soaked in the violence of those who fear the transition. The first transition was from the archaic era of when humans experienced life in a dream state of consciousness, into the magical era of when this consciousness of being able to access the world of the spirits was possessed exclusively by the shamans. The next transition was from the magical era into the mythic era of when the phenomena of life were explained in mythic stories that arose from dreams. The violence of the evolution of the mythic era into the rational era as evident in the story of the Tower of Babel is recorded in history. This rational era that we have experienced over the last 2500 years is the era of consciousness limited to our five senses of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch, the era that is now evolving into the fifth era. This fifth era that Gebser calls the era of time-free transparence, is the era of the return to our origin with the time-free nature of consciousness that connects us with the world of the spirits, the New Age.

The world of the spirits as experienced by the Druids, though hidden over several centuries, is still alive and practiced, and is now giving us direction as we move into this new world, direction that is beautifully revealed in Ellen Evert Hopman’s three novels. This is an exciting time for those of us who are opening ourselves to experiencing this new world.

Nicholas E. Brink, PhD

Author of

Ecstatic Soul Retrieval (publisher – Inner Traditions / Bear & Co.
Power of Ecstatic Trance
Baldr’s Magic
Beowulf’s Ecstatic Trance Magic
Trance Journeys of the Hunter-Gatherers
Grendel and His Mother (publisher – Routledge)
Applying the Constructivist Approach to Cognitive Therapy: Resolving the Unconscious Past (Routledge)

Available from your preferred bookseller
Email
Facebook Site: Nick Brink’s Books

I am honored to be included in this list of influential volumes (*please note* the book PEOPLE OF THE EARTH is now called BEING A PAGAN – DRUIDS, WICCANS AND WITCHES TODAY).

The Day of the Straws – RTE radio spot (Ireland)

You can watch the whole film here

UPCOMING WORKSHOP

March 5-7, 2021
WitchCon virtual conference
I will speak on magical techniques of the Druids
Join the largest online magical conference in the world here