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" Seek the truth and run from

those who claim to have found it "

after André Gide

Saying things you didn’t know you knew!

December 16th, 2017

I was interviewed the other day for a piece on Druidry that came out in The Times today. You can see it here. At the end I’m quoted as saying that Awen (the term we use in Druidry for inspiration) can come to us and we find ourselves writing (or saying) something that we didn’t know we knew. Have a look at this video of Dr Martin Shaw, the storyteller. 50 seconds into the interview he does exactly this. It’s fun to watch it happen, and what he didn’t know is wonderful!

10 Responses to “Saying things you didn’t know you knew!”

  1. I rather enjoyed the Times article, thought it fair and informed. Awen can strike like this in any field. The famous chemist Linus Pauling invented something called the metallic bond to explain some of the properties of metals. He didn’t fully understand his own idea until he was giving a seminar one day, when suddenly, the full understanding of the idea came flooding into him.

  2. Thank you for sharing both. Once more, it is great to see my own thoughts and feelings reflected in others

  3. Thank you Philip – so peace giving and uplifting. The article in the times was great and really struck a wonderful chord.

  4. Although I’ve only had it for a year, Dr. Shaw’s Scatterlings is one of my most favorite books of all time—lyrical and deep.

  5. Sharing can expand upon our reflections. Thank you for sharing this. I very much enjoyed it, and gained some insight into the Druidic framing of deep memory.
    I believe in the ephemeral mind. I experience it as my personal staight of being. There is a great deal Idvlike to say here. However, its interesting to me how framing something culturally adds and takes away from our perceptions of it and the barer of those experiences and or staights of being.
    Awen was a new word to me not so long ago. What you call Awen is my own breath. Its always there. All I have to do is let it manifest.
    Im facinated by neuroscience right now and the study of hallucinatory staights. I believe that since there is no mental illness identified that some of us are able to control faculties that others cannot. This goes beyond known theories.
    If you are aware of any theiretical materials I can access on this topic can you pleade direct me to them.
    Much appreciated.

  6. Thank you So much for Charing this! It touched me peppy, because I certainly recognize it……it comes everytime as a surprise, an insight, in my own experience, named in Indian philosophy: a “Satori”….if it comes, you’re so surprised by your own words, it is inspired, you didn’t know, indeed, that you knew it.

  7. That’s indeed just one of the reasons why it’s good to speak sometimes! 😀 I really admire Martin Shaw and his work, and it’s lovely to witness a moment where the muse touched him.

  8. Please pass thanks to Martin Shaw. I was reading Ezra Pound’s Pisan Cantos last night after watching the video. Pound was in serious trouble – poets can get their judgment terribly wrong like the rest – but the poetry was of the best. He was imprisoned in a cage in the open to start with, and touching ground that I thought Martin would appreciate. A refrain through the cantos was beauty: “Beauty is difficult”. Then near the end of LXXXIV: “Under white clouds, cielo di Pisa / out of all this beauty something must come”. And the last lines: “If the hoar frost grip thy tent / Thou will give thanks when night is spent.”

  9. Awesome…. Spoken from your heart.Nothing could move me more… I know you not,yet I love you…thank you..

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