Opal Whiteley

God’s bells are ringing a call to prayer in the woods today — in the shadows of the woodland I found Mission Bell blooming by the pathway — all its beauty blending with the shadows round about. Bronze Bells and Rice-Root both describe it — flowers of various modest shades, all mottled and checkered over — roots like little pearls or tiny grains of rice. Fritillaria is the name the scientists know it by; but to wee children’s hearts the name Mission Bell is most dear – God’s little prayer flowers, calling us to think of Him and all His goodness. 

Opal Whiteley – The Fairyland Around Us

 

I have written in previous posts about the extraordinary story of the nature writer Opal Whiteley. Her childhood nature diary was published when Opal was an adult but later became the subject of controversy, its authenticity  brought into question by many who believed that Opal had forged the diary as an adult.

Whatever the truth behind Opal’s writings, her work is deeply touching and does indeed possess a child-like, mystical and magical engagement with the natural world.

There is now a film about her life; an independently made and beautifully shot movie that deserves wider interest. For a short time the film will be available to buy at the movie’s website www.opalthemovie.com and it is also available via the Tribecca Film Institute’s Reframe Collection at http://reframecollection.org/films/film?Id=2282 .

Here is a poem from her 1923 collection The Flower of Stars:

The Little Room

In Man’s heart is a little room.

He has named it

Oblivion

And things are arranged along its wall

That he does not wish

To think about.

Every time he pushes something in there

He closes the door very tightly

But in hours when he is weary,

In the hours that walk around some midnights,

When high fires have burned

To a low flicker,

Then the little door swings on its hinges.

And no thing

Will make it stay closed

All of the time.

 

When he is near death

All the velvet-footed wanderers in there

Join the throng around his bed,

“We will not die,” they whisper

To one another

While Beauty waits with drawn lips and dry eyes.

But there is heard

The patter of a little sad rain

In her heart’s garden

Where some little flower buds

That were once thinking of the sun

Will never open

Because man keeps a little room

Of oblivion in his soul.

A still from 'Opal'

The Bradshaw Foundation’s website offers an amazing treasure-trove of information: Films on cave art all over the world, an informative interactive section on genetics and ancestry and much more. Their latest Newsletter announces their British Isles Prehistory Archive:

Winter 2012
British Isles Prehistory Archive

The British Isles Prehistory Archive presents a rich array of monuments, art and tools found throughout the British Isles.

The island was first inhabited by people who crossed over the land bridge from the European mainland. Traces of modern humans – Homo sapiens – date from about 30,000 years ago. Until about 10,000 years ago, Great Britain was joined to Ireland, and as recently as 8,000 years ago it was joined to the continent by a strip of low marsh to what is now Denmark and the Netherlands. Great Britain became an island at the end of the Pleistocene ice age when sea levels rose due to isostatic depression of the crust and the melting of glaciers.

Introduction to the British Isles Prehistory Archive

Here is a lovely guest post by Andreas Kornevall.

 

The Story of the Baiji River Dolphin

In the year 354 BC, there was a young Princess who lived on a tall sailing ship called the Dragon of the White Jade.  The ship was built by Master Chen, China’s greatest ship builder; it had over one hundred rooms, all of them richly decorated with gold and silver carvings depicting the life on the Yangtze River.  When the ship set sail, the villagers gathered alongside the river banks to celebrate with the Emperor and his consort. Princess Baiji was loved by all her people, she was vivacious and always cheerful and many could hear her laughter and her joy was felt from afar.  She would rarely leave the river, she spent days swimming, collecting shells and pebbles along the lush river banks.

But her carefree life could not last forever.  Her father, the Emperor, believed she was wasting her life away swimming in the currents and running on the river banks.   He decided that she should marry a great Prince and he made the declaration to the whole Empire before Princess Baiji was informed.  It was a momentous occasion and everyone rejoiced and began preparations for a lavish wedding on the Dragon of the White Jade.

Princess Baiji was the last to find out.   When she was summoned to her father, she was given a list of duties she would have to perform as the wife of the Prince.  The Emperor sent her away to prepare for her new commitments to the Prince.  During this time of preparation for her wedding, she learned that her life would no longer be spent swimming along the warm currents of the river, or ever having time to admire the shimmering waters with their hidden shells and jade stones.  She became heartbroken.

She went to her father and told him she had decided not to marry the Prince, instead she wanted to continue spending her days bathing in the river and collecting jewelry.  This revelation flew like a stray arrow into the Emperor’s heart.  He retaliated by saying that she had brought shame on the family and to the whole Empire. In his rage and fury, a sudden madness overcame him.  The Emperor’s loss of face had made him blind to the love that he had felt for his daughter and he sentenced her to be put to death. The guards of the Emperor took her roughly by the arms and led her outside, whilst the people shouted for the Emperor to stop this folly. The next morning, she was forced to stand aft on the ship.  The guards pushed her overboard into the currents and as she was bound by strong silk threads she drowned.

As she lay on the bottom of the river, the River God himself was moved to pity.  He breathed life back into her and loosened her silken threads.  As a River God he was able to transform her into a creature who lived in the river.  He willed that her smile become permanent on her new slender beak, and he made the happy twinkle in her eyes shine at all times.  Her body began to transform, and she grew a tail and a fin. He turned her into a River Dolphin.  When she told the River God about her story he reacted full of fury.  He arose from the river and stirred up a storm, capsizing the Dragon of the White Jade.   The Emperor was thrown into the dangerous currents where he struggled for his life.  When Princess Baiji saw her father, she could not help but to feel a strong sense of compassion within her and she was moved to act.  She came to his rescue and swam with him to safety.  When the Emperor looked into the eyes of the River Dolphin he was reminded of his daughter and his sense returned.  On the bank he sat and wept bitterly over his wrongful doing.  From this selfless act of the River Dolphin, the Emperor decreed that all River Dolphins would always be protected in his Empire.

The people alongside the river banks were delighted to witness the playfulness of the Dolphin and as time passed she became a symbol of peace, laughter, and prosperity.

Legends say that she married the River God and for centuries, she lived in peace in the quiet waters and over time she became known as the Goddess of the Yangtze.

The Baiji River Dolphin was declared extinct in 2006.

(c) Andreas Kornevall

The Titanic Memorial Belfast photo by Albert Bridge

This should be wonderful! The first performance will be 10th April, the 100th anniversary of the loss of the Titanic.

From the BBC website:

Bee Gees star Robin Gibb is to make his classical debut with an album about the sinking of the Titanic.

He has collaborated with his son, RJ, on The Titanic Requiem to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

Read more in the BBC article here.

We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.

~ Abraham Joshua Heschel

(1907 – 1972)

Polish-born American rabbi and leading Jewish theologian

I’m working away to finish our lovely new website by Imbolc, hence few posts here, but just recently some photos came in from the last two workshops I did on the Tarot – one in France and one in Germany towards the end of last year. Using the Tarot in workshops creates a wonderful atmosphere of colour and images, as you can see from these pictures, and it seems to attract dogs too. In France they were occasional visitors while we worked, in Germany, Gloia the beautiful Koolie mix with ice coloured eyes, spent the whole weekend with us and ended up running the workshop…

Tarot Workshop at the Psychosynthesis Centre Bordeaux

Our reader is thanked for her startling insights

Gloia indicates the card I should be talking about

Here is a wonderful post by Damh the Bard which he has very kindly shared from his fantastic Blog, which you can find here: http://damh.wordpress.com/ 

I shall be as the Dark Holly King,

Darkness and cold in my cloak I will bring,

And on Winter’s nights to me you will sing,

Til the air around me starts changing,

And on the Noon of the Solstice I’ll give up my crown,

To the Light, and the mighty Oak King!

- Noon of the Solstice from Spirit of Albion

The Dark Lord, the Holly King, Arawn, Lord of Winter, a deity known by many names, one whose Zenith was marked at the Winter Solstice on the Longest night of the year, yet whose power and strength only seems to get stronger throughout these first few months of the Waxing Year. I have a deep and personal connection with the Oak King, Lord of Summer, but I have sadly not always felt that same connection with his darker brother. This is something I am addressing this year.

I remember playing a talk given by Professor Ronald Hutton on DruidCast where he said something like, “Pagan Gods are great, and full of hoof and horn, and sweat, and the men’s locker room, but which Pagan God would a parent take their sick child to for healing, or to offer love and comfort if that child had passed away?” Our Pagan Gods are wild, as is Paganism itself, but sometimes I feel that reflection, peace, calm, prayer, silence and love are too quickly labelled as ‘fluffy’. The irony is that, although Winter can be a harsh time of year, it’s also a time where the Earth appears to be hibernating, is calm, peaceful, and often silent. Of course there are storms, but there is also a stillness that is tangible. Walking through a woodland in late Autumn/Winter you can see deeper into it, I find the leaves underfoot comforting, and the oasis of the green of Holly and Yew remind me that although the God I know well is resting, or growing as a small child, I am still not alone, as the eyes of the Green Man’s face of evergreen is still watching me.

Whereas the Spring and Summer are times of bursting activity, it is the Autumn and Winter that give me these times of reflection. So although the Holly King’s face is thorny and tough, I feel it is to him I can go to in times of pain and hurt, for healing, for comfort. Less hoof and horn, and more a reminder that I am never truly alone, even in the darkest of times.

Damh the Bard

 

 

Talented OBOD member, musician and composer Joseph Nemeth debuts his Missa Druidica this weekend in Denver. It is an impressive and moving piece. Joseph speaks a little about his work here:

A year ago, on my birthday, Marta pushed me out the door and told me to get myself an iMac with music software. So I did, and found myself inspired to write a Druidic Mass, a Missa Druidica – a five-movement work for choir and small orchestra that turned out exceptionally well.

In May I had a chance encounter with the director of a Denver choir, the Orpheus Pagan Chamber Choir, and approached him with the score. He liked the music, and now they will be performing it. Several times, in fact.

The opening performance for the piece (three of the five movements), plus other assorted works, is the Twelfth Night celebration at 7:00 pm on Saturday, January 7, 2012, at the Temple Events Center, 1595 Pearl Street (Corner of E. 16th Ave, six blocks east and one block north of Broadway and Colfax), Denver, CO. The performance is followed by a Boar’s Head procession and a traditional Norse Julbord feast. If you don’t know what those are, you are in good company — I don’t have a clue, either. I’m looking forward to finding out. It should be good food, good fun, and beautiful music.

Tickets go on sale on October 29, 2011: $10 for the concert, and $35 for concert and feast. Last year, tickets sold out two weeks before the concert.

This is incredibly exciting for me, because it will be the first live performance of any of my music. 

…Marta and I drove down to Denver to meet with Charlie Samson of Colorado Public Radio for an interview about the Missa Druidica. The interview and portions of the Missa will be played on the program Colorado Matters at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, January 6. Those of you outside the broadcast range of the Colorado stations can hear the webcast at http://www.cpr.org

Do check out Joseph’s wonderful music but for those who miss the webcast, there is a plan to produce a CD in the near future. Check back here for details.

There are some books that you feel simply must have been written, but a search reveals that they exist only in the world of your hopes and desires. But every so often you discover that one really does exist – and Alferian’s Wandlore is one of these books. It is quite simply the most comprehensive book about magical wands that you will ever find. It covers the history, design and magical theory underpinning the use and construction of wands, and includes detailed instructions on how to make them, complete with drawings and colour photographs. To have a look at the wands made by the book’s author see www.bardwood.com

 

‘Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment’ 

Jalal al-Din Rumi

From the BBC website:

Nick Ravenscroft visited the derelict house near the mysterious Pendle Hill

Engineers have said they were “stunned” to unearth a 17th Century cottage, complete with a cat skeleton, during a construction project in Lancashire.

The cottage was discovered near Lower Black Moss reservoir in the village of Barley, in the shadow of Pendle Hill.

Archaeologists brought in by United Utilities to survey the area found the building under a grass mound.

Historians are now speculating that the well-preserved cottage could have belonged to one of the Pendle witches.

The building contained a sealed room, with the bones of a cat bricked into the wall.

Read more on the BBC site here.

No wonder the tree is such a potent symbol for Druids. Professor Suzanne Simard shares her latest research regarding forest ecosystems here. Amazingly, we find that in a forest, 1+1 equals more than 2, as all trees are interconnected with the largest, oldest, “mother trees” serving as hubs. The underground exchange of nutrients increases the survival of younger trees linked into the network of old trees in this fascinating, real-life model of forest resilience and regeneration.

Video from KarmaTube

I’m doing a workshop in Germany this weekend. We understand each other perfectly…

I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible.
To loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
To live
So that which came to me as seed,
goes to the next as blossom.
And that which came to me as a
blossom
goes on as fruit.

Dawna Markova

A Date for your diary: The Book of English Magic will celebrate its 3rd birthday on the seventh day of the seventh month of 2012 at Dr. John Dee’s house in Mortlake, at 12 of the clock, and afterwards at the Ship Inn… And during that month you can experience Damon Albarn’s opera Dr Dee at the English National Opera. On 7/7 there’s a performance at 1430 and 1930. See here.

Archaeologists make new Stonehenge 'sun worship' find

From the BBC Website: Two previously undiscovered pits have been found at Stonehenge which point to it once being used as a place of sun worship before the stones were erected.

The pits are positioned on celestial alignment at the site and may have contained stones, posts or fires to mark the rising and setting of the sun.

An international archaeological survey team found the pits as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project. Read more.

This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Rumi

At a Psychosynthesis conference in Bordeaux today, I gave a talk which suggested a way of resolving the potential conflict or tension between the practice of psychotherapy and the practice of spiritual teaching. Here is the text of the talk and the exercise we followed afterwards, with some links and a translation in French:

In the Beginning was the Word…

Spiritual teachers and psychotherapists both use the spoken word to effect change. In this talk I explore the similarities and differences in these two ways of working with words, and suggest a third field of service that combines elements of both approaches.

Merlin with a rather enthusiastic student by Gustav Dore

Imagine the archetypal image of the sage with their disciple, the teacher brimming with wisdom, the young pupil wide-eyed and eager to learn. If they were druids, they would be seated beneath an oak tree. Together, through the process of talking and listening, the pupil, and the teacher often too, experiences insight, emotional support, and a growth in understanding and hopefully wisdom.

Now see the image of a psychotherapy client with their therapist. They’re probably indoors, rather than outdoors, the oak tree has become a potted plant, and the client may be lying on a sofa or sitting facing the therapist. What are these people doing? They too are talking and listening to each other. In some ways the outcomes and aims of their meeting are similar to those of the former couple, but in other ways they are different. Let’s explore the similarities and differences in these two contexts. Through doing this we might learn how to perform such tasks more effectively, avoid some of the difficulties that can occur when the two get confused, and even see whether in any way the two approaches can be creatively combined.

What are the similarities? Both aim to be of help to the recipient, with therapy focused on healing, and spiritual teaching focused on helping the pupil develop spiritually. Both these aims can be unpacked, with healing involving more than simply helping the client recover from wounding, and spiritual development encompassing a range of goals that will vary according to the spiritual discipline being taught. But both approaches aim to relieve suffering, though spiritual teaching includes a more ambitious goal.

Both approaches use the two key ingredients of speech and presence, the power of the word and focussed awareness. Both are working within an oral tradition – used in a loose sense of the term. At the heart of any oral tradition is the story, and the life-blood of both Psychotherapy and spiritual teaching is the story. But here is the difference within these two approaches: in spiritual teaching the story comes from the mouth of the teacher, in therapy from the mouth of the client. In spiritual teaching the stories are mythic, inspirational, often traditional and sometimes originating in a truly oral tradition, in the strictest sense of the term, meaning that these stories have been handed down across the generations from ‘mouth to ear’. In therapy the prima materia for the work is the story of the client’s life – not as a set of objective data, but as a subjective work of memory, part fact, part fiction. But even here we can see such a story as part of an oral tradition, if we broaden our understanding of that term. A client’s story has been handed down across the generations – strands coloured by the collective, trauma and triumph in the family line encoded consciously or unconsciously into the client’s story-line and hence into the way their life has unfolded.