I’ve just added a brief article and pdf to the Order’s Library, which follows on from yesterday’s post about E.Graham Howe and the latest Mt.Haemus paper. Here’s the start of it:

Nowadays it is quite common to see psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists aligning themselves with Druidry. We live in enlightened times. But even in earlier years, before the ‘Great Enlightenment’ of the 1960s, there is evidence that some of those working in these professions were drawn to Druidry. One of these figures was the psychiatrist E.Graham Howe, who helped found the influential Tavistock Clinic in London, and was a friend and advocate of the revolutionary psychiatrist R.D.Laing. Howe developed Jung’s theory of the four functions to include an understanding of esoteric anatomy, and wrote The Mind of the Druid – a book which is explored by psycho-spiritual psychotherapist Ian Rees in his Mount Haemus paper, which you can read here. Another was Professor Henry Chellew, a member of the Ancient Druid Order, out of which the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids emerged fifty years ago.
For those who love browsing in second-hand bookshops there is nothing more exciting than discovering an obscure volume tucked away on a shelf in one of these shops, forgotten for years perhaps, that speaks directly to our interests. Some years ago I came across just such a volume: The Encyclopedia of Psychology published by the Psychology Foundation in Brussels in 1928. The copy I found, perhaps in one of those lovely old shops in Hay-on-Wye, I can’t remember exactly, had been in the main library of Pius the Twelfth College in Basutoland. Here was a collection of short articles, each accompanied by an earnest portrait photograph and the signature of the author. Contributors were not only academics, but lay writers too: Madame Tamara Karsavina giving us tips on ‘Poise and Power’, Miss Fanny Lea writing on ‘Needless Apprehension’, the Rev.Thomas Cameron on ‘The Seven Deadly Sins.’ In ‘Dangers Incidental to Boyhood’ Dr R.D.Reid, ex-president of the Oxford University Archaelogical Society, and House-Master of a boy’s school in Dorset, advises adults to warn a young lad ‘that wastage of his life fluid will result in lowered efficiency all over his body. Eventually, it will bring utter disaster.’
What a relief it was, then, to find amongst this odd collection an article by someone who had actually studied psychology – the druid Professor Henry Chellew, lecturer on Psychology at the University of London…
The article in library includes a pdf of Chellew’s essay.

Click on the thumbnails below for the full photo and a bio

A book with a fascinating title came out in 2009 – The Druid of Harley Street, edited by William Stranger. It is a collection of writings by the psychiatrist E.Graham Howe, who helped found the influential Tavistock Clinic in London, and was a friend and advocate of the revolutionary psychiatrist R.D.Laing. In William Stranger’s brief introduction to Howe’s work, he writes of Howe’s ‘Psychology of Incarnation’, of his dialogues with Carl Jung, and of the way Howe developed Jung’s theory of the four functions to include an understanding of esoteric anatomy. Stranger outlines Howe’s biography, and gives only one clue as to why he has chosen ‘The Druid of Harley Street’ as the title for his collection. Stranger writes: ‘In the early 1970s…he [Howe] fulfilled his longstanding desire to reside in Wales, the site of ancient Druidic culture that he felt exemplified many of his principles about life and spirit. Howe and [his wife] Doris lived for a while in a small stone house near Bala…’

The collection then offers us excerpts from every book that Howe wrote, bar one: The Mind of the Druid – a book whose most recent edition carries an introduction by David Loxley, Chief of the Ancient Druid Order.

Despite this strange lacuna, which seems almost perverse given the title of the collection, we must be grateful to Stranger for having produced this volume, which gives students of spiritual psychology the opportunity to study material which risked being completely forgotten.

And now, I am delighted to say, this omission has been addressed. Every year The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids invites a scholar to research a topic of relevance to students of Druidry, and this year psycho-spiritual psychotherapist Ian Rees has contributed a paper which focuses on Howe’s The Mind of the Druid.

Howe’s writing is not easy – he is reaching for depths of insight that are hard to express, and Ian Rees’ paper is equally challenging. But if coming to a greater understanding of spiritual psychology, especially in relation to Druidic studies, is your passion, then do have a look at this latest addition to the Mount Haemus collection. You can find it here: The Sixteenth Mount Haemus Lecture: Gathering Mistletoe – an approach to the Work of E.Graham Howe by Ian Rees

The Chapel in the Forest – An Illustrated Talk on the Grail Chapel in Tréhorenteuc, Brittany:  In the 1940s, a Catholic priest in Brittany remodelled and redecorated a church as a grail chapel beside the mystical forest of Brocéliande, with its many associations with Arthurian legend. I will be giving an illustrated talk about this chapel, and the surrounding area at Sacred Space at Steiner House, Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London NW1 6XT on Thursday 18 June at 7.30pm.

Contact: Marion Briggs

Tel: 0870 766 9657* E-mail: marionbriggs148@btinternet.com

* charged at national rate

Entrance is £12 Concessions and donations possible – all welcome

A beautiful poem by David Whyte:

An open sandy shell
on the beach
empty but beautiful
like a memory
of a protected previous self.
The most difficult griefs,
ones in which
we slowly open
to a larger sea, a grander
sweep that washes
all our elements apart.

So strange the way
we are larger
in grief
than we imagined
we deserved or could claim
and when loss floods
into us
like the long darkness it is
and the old nurtured hope
is drowned again
even stranger then
at the edge of the sea
to feel the hand of the wind
laid on our shoulder
reminding us
how death grants
a fierce and fallen freedom

away from the prison
of a constant
and continued presence,
how in the end
those who have left us
might no longer need us
with all our tears
and our much needed
measures of loss
and that their own death
is as personal
and private
as that life of theirs
which you never really knew,
and another disturbing thing,
that exultation
is possible
without them.

And they for themselves
in fact
are glad to have let go
of all the stasis
and the enclosure
and the need for them to love
like some prisoner
that you only wanted
to remain incurious
and happy in your love
never looking for the key
never wanting to
turn the lock and walk
away
like the wind
unneedful of you,
ungovernable,
unnameable,
free.

~ David Whyte from Everything is Waiting for You

I couldn’t quite believe it when I saw it. A 136 page full-colour large format book with every page buzzing with creativity and singing with Awen! Sharon Zak, an OBOD member, talented artist and founder of Slippery Jack Press, and Maria Ede-Weaving, who helps me with my email, blog, and FB, had got together to produce this, and I only saw it at the final stage as a pdf.

They asked members for contributions around the theme of what it means to be a Druid, and what it means to be an OBOD Druid, and the resulting contributions in essays, accounts, poems, artwork and stories is just stunning!

Kevin Redpath has been making films for us for the last five years, and so we had a thought – let’s combine his latest 25 minute documentary on the Order’s Golden Anniversary celebrations in Glastonbury with his two other films and a slide show of photos on a DVD, and put this in a cardboard sleeve on the inside cover of the book. And so hey presto, here it is – a Celebration of Fifty years of OBOD available to order now from the OBOD store here.

An article from the OBOD website library by Maria Ede-Weaving…

Irina Karkabi

Lady of the earth’s desire and the earth’s yielding, of the sap rising and the embrace of longing, as the kiss of the sun awakens you, we too are awakened to the yearning of our bodies and souls. As you unfurl each petal, you release the scent of bluebells, may and apple blossom – this is your love song, your call to union – and we too must answer.

It is hard to resist loving this time of year, everything feels gloriously alive and renewed; the blossom abundant; the green of the trees that special shade that our eyes seem magnetically drawn to. The colour of bluebells has an equally mesmerising effect, as if we are thirsty for it, that rare, vivid, unearthly blue that dissolves and overwhelms our defences with joy.

Beltane is the festival of the Sacred Union of the Goddess and God. It’s a deeply joyous affair, celebrating sexuality on many levels, its rites ultimately honouring our striving for that union of the Divine Masculine and Feminine deep within us. I always think of it as exploring that magical process when we truly open to another – just as the blossom to the bee – and in the surrendering of that boundary become something more than ourselves. Love and sex bring us some of our most profound experiences; some ecstatically joyous; others deeply painful – but at best they open us and let the mystery of another’s being flood into that intimate, hidden space, changing us.

I have always been very interested in the spiritual dimensions of sex. From very early on, I had an inkling that sex had the potential to be a gateway to God which was rather strange considering my early experiences of it, which at best were rather empty, superficial teenage fumbling, at worst humiliating abuse. Even at the lowest moments of the abusive relationship in my teens, when sex really did feel like the sharpest and most brutal of weapons to my young psyche, I knew deep down that in its purest form it could be a profoundly connecting and intensely spiritual act. What my early experience taught me was that it takes a great deal of courage to let sex work on you in that way because such an experience demands a mutual surrendering; a letting go of all that keeps us feeling safe; a stripping away of those masks that hide our vulnerability. In abusive relationships you have a dynamic where that surrendering is being actively forced upon one party by another; the enforcer does their utmost to surrender nothing – they control the surrender by force or coercion and vicariously experience it for themselves whilst retaining a sense of power. Such an approach is mainly about power – it’s not even really about sex. Sex becomes an enticing setting because it is potentially where we expose our greatest vulnerability.

Sex can be the most meaningless of acts, a superficial if pleasurable sensation; it can be a battlefield, the most painful wedge of separation between two people; it can also be a gateway to another’s deepest being, a connecting force between the soul of one to another; it can bring an intensity of emotion and feeling that blows life as we know it apart – all known signposts gone – and from this intensely vulnerable and alive place, a new potential of being can be born. Spiritual sex, sex that engages the body, mind emotions and soul surely takes us to the Divine within, shows us most vividly a glimpse of that Divine Union that we strive for within us, the union that Beltane is ultimately about…(to read the complete article click here).

Maria’s Blog A Druid Thurible

Caro with Tommy

In five days Caro Woods will start an 800 mile journey on horseback from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, to St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall to raise money for the Riding for the Disabled Association. Caro explains that as well as being a fund raising it is a journey of Pilgrimage:

By linking these two Holy Islands, I hope to create a spiritual thread between them, and in the process, possibly reconnect with an ancient pilgrim route. I plan to ride a horse from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, near the Scottish border, to St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall.  A journey spanning the breadth of England, creating a spiritual thread uniting the far NE shore to the SW corner of this country and linking two Holy Islands in the process. In travelling between these sacred places one not only refreshes one’s own spirit but assists in the work of reviving the latent spirit of the earth.  

It will also unite the church dedicated to St Mary on Lindisfarne with the church on St. Michael’s Mount, so-called after the vision of St. Michael first appeared on top of the Mount to a group of fisherman in the bay below, in 495 AD.  Before I knew about this connection between the churches on these Holy Islands, these two Saints already held a special meaning for me.  The Mary / Michael Pilgrim route is a spiritual ley line that links Carn Les Boel in Cornwall with Hopton in Norfolk, and one that I have walked various Western sections of at different times in 2014 (as well as the St Michael’s Way in Cornwall which forms the Cornish section of the Santiago de Compostela Pilgrim Route). The spiritual energy of these two Saints are quite different and distinctive in their own ways, the ‘Mary’ energy being a more gentle and benign version of the ‘Michael’ energy.  Both have become important elements of this journey.  We shall join the M/M Pilgrim Route when we reach Glastonbury where we shall trace its curving, serpent path back to St Michael’s Mount, our destination in Cornwall.

This journey on horseback will be a personal pilgrimage.  In this, my 60th year, each days’ ride will be a celebration of each year of my life.  The aim is to create a body of work which explores the nature of long distance travel with a horse, as a form of meditation, reflection and personal transformation, as well as raising funds towards the important and valuable work of the RDA.  

Caro is keeping a Blog about her journey that you can find here, and if you would like to make a contribution please visit her my donate page.

A Review of James Bennett’s Underworld & Archetypes by Maria Ede-Weaving…

Mythological journeys to the Underworld exist in many different cultures. Their recurrence suggests their importance and necessity with regard to human experience. Psychotherapist James Bennett explores this subject in his book Underworld & Archetypes.

Having a deep love and fascination for the descent and ascent of Persephone in Greek Mythology, I was delighted to have the opportunity to review this book. I have long-held the belief that these stories of Underworld journeys, although on one level are metaphors for seasonal changes, also speak much about our own moments of crisis. I resonated wholeheartedly with the book’s message that despite the pain and struggle that accompany such dark and difficult psychological descents, there is a deep value in the process with much to be gained.

James’ book is written in three sections. The first deals with Western Culture’s problematic fixation with transcendence; inherent in this obsession is the valuing of heaven above the earthly realms. This troubling polarisation has led to a perception of the material worlds of earth, underworld and body as inferior, flawed and even evil. James explores the psychological impetus that drives this split between spirit and matter, and illustrates how this unhealthy dissociation from the earthly realms severs us from our deepest sources of wisdom and growth. The second section examines the myths of descent and reveals how these can be useful tools in encouraging us to positively engage with our own times of loss, grief and change. The third section entitled ‘The Space Between’, discusses the importance of liminality in human experience; how change and transition are a constant factor in life. James reminds us that these liminal places are fertile with potential; thresholds where the known substance of our being – our understanding of the world and self – can dissolve and reform, triggering profound transformation and growth.

James’ book will resonate with many on the Druid path. Druidry seeks to heal the split between spirit and matter, and the intimate connection Druidry fosters with the earth and its seasonal changes allows us to recognise that death and the descent are crucial to renewal and growth, whether it be in the natural world or within our own psyches.

James Bennett

A psychotherapist of many years’ experience, it is clear that James understands deeply our reticence to trust in this challenging process – there is nothing romantic or fun about pain and suffering – however, this great little book is both a useful signpost and a source of reassurance, suggesting that we are well-equipped for the journey, that the descent is a core part of our humanity and an experience we will all share.

Underworld and Archetypes is short in length but massive in wisdom. James Bennett writes with clarity and insight about a complex and intriguing subject. It is a perfect introduction to anyone unfamiliar with these fascinating myths and how they might serve to guide and enlighten our path. It is also an inspiring read for those veterans of the Underworld amongst us who know the myths and have the lived the journey but might need an encouraging reminder of its gifts. With a fascinating Bibliography and some lovely illustrations, Underworld and Archetypes is an enjoyable read I highly recommend.

That mysterious man Jonathan Black, author of The Secret History of the World, and The Sacred History,  is making a rare public appearance at the London Wellbeing Festival at Earl’s Court on Sunday 3rd May. He’s giving a workshop which sounds fascinating: ‘How to Live in a Supernatural Universe’ and you can see details here.

Read about him here. I interviewed Jonathan last year for Druidcast and you can hear that here. And below is a video introducing his book The Sacred History: