Do Druids Have To See Animals In Order To Transform Into Them
Animal Lore
"Await far off to the north-eastward
On the sea so fantabulous
Teeming with life
Home of the seals
Shining and playful in the full tide"
Irish ninth century
Imagine that you are in a forest glade, a immigration lit by shafts of sunlight that filter downwards through the awning of leaves high above. For a moment it seems as if you are lonely in this clearing, just and so you hear the sound of scuffling hooves, and of a sudden yous run into a young white hind approaching you – its graceful torso caught in the sunbeams. She stops, and for a moment the two of you just stare at each other – each surprised, each entranced for a moment. And then she turns away from you lot, slowly and deliberately, and walks – not runs – back into the forest from whence she came. She moves so slowly she seems to want you to follow her. You can almost hear her maxim "Come with me. Follow me deeper into the forest."
Only every bit every plant and tree is considered sacred in Druidry, so every beast, fish and bird is seen as sacred too. But in the same style that some trees and plants, such as the oak and mistletoe, receive special veneration, so too practice sure creatures receive particular attention within Druidry. The hind, which is a female blood-red deer, is one such animal, and it is considered especially sacred by Druids. In Scotland they are called 'fairy cattle' and the old people tell stories of seeing these cattle being milked on the mountaintops by the fairies. Some say that the hinds are in fact fairy women themselves who accept shape-shifted into these graceful creatures. To have a hind appear in our lives – either in the outer world or in the inner earth in meditation or dreams – usually means that we will presently experience great happiness – that our lives are about to change in positive means.
Inner Knowledge, Vitality and Healing
Each creature is seen in Druidry as offering gifts of inner noesis, vitality and healing. We know that animals can provide us with food and clothing, just here the idea is that they tin offer united states much more – they are not simply 'dumb animals', fit only for our tables or shoes. Anyone who has kept, and truly loved, cats, dogs or horses, for example, will know of the boggling bonds that can form betwixt us every bit humans and the animals we love. Telepathic connections with pets are frequently reported, and take get the ground of scientific experiments, and information technology has now been proved that pet ownership in the elderly prolongs life and promotes adept health. All this shows that animals do indeed offer us the gifts of vitality and healing, and conspicuously nosotros in turn tin help them with our intendance and affection. In Druidry we go one stage further and suggest that each animal carries a different and very particular kind of 'energy' or healing potential – 'medicine' in Native American vocabulary. This energy is available to the states not simply by physically connecting with an animal. Sometimes it simply isn't practical to stroke a ophidian or lion for example, but Druids believe they can nevertheless receive this energy and collaborate with the animal in the Otherworld. This mysterious realm is sometimes chosen the Spiritworld. Some might think it imaginary, others might run across it every bit another term for the Collective Unconscious, only Druids believe it is a world to which we sometimes travel in sleep or meditation, and which nosotros enter at the death of our physical trunk. There, in this parallel universe of the Otherworld, are trees and plants, animals and birds, humans and nature-Spirits. Simply as our outer world contains a host of different environments and beings who inhabit them, so as well with the Otherworld, and part of the training of Druidry lies in developing the power to consciously travel in this world – then that in dreams and meditation, and on death, nosotros can navigate within it. Many of the sometime Celtic folk-tales that derive from the Druid tradition speak of this realm and of the exploits of mortals who enter it. In the story of the Well of Segais from Ireland, for example, nosotros learn of King Cormac, who loses his wife and children to a mysterious warrior who spirits them away to the Otherworld. Cormac gives chase with an army, but a mist descends, he is separated from his troops, and he finds himself alone by a well. Around it grow nine hazel copse, and swimming in its deep waters are five large salmon who feed on the hazelnuts. 5 streams representing the five senses flow from the well, which is as well described as a fountain or pool. The mysterious warrior reappears and reveals himself as the god of the sea, Manannan, who reunites Cormac with his wife and children. He then explains that the wise drink from each of the five streams and the central pool – suggesting an approach to wisdom that represents the very essence of Druidry as a sensuous spirituality that seeks wisdom and nourishment from the still centre of Spirit deep within and through each of our v senses.
The Salmon
When the Druid today seeks the Salmon of Wisdom they are connecting not only to a tradition of the aboriginal Druids, only as well to an agreement that is rooted deep in the collective sensation of all humanity.
Ways of Working with Animals
Since Druidry is a sensuous spirituality of the land that seeks an involvement with life, rather than a disengagement from it, an essential way of working with animals from a Druid perspective is simply to include animals in our lives – spending time with them, caring for them, becoming involved in conservation projects. Western consumerism has tended to cut usa off from much of life, enclosing u.s. in boxes of metal as nosotros shuttle from our brick boxes to our concrete and drinking glass work-boxes. For many of united states of america we work gazing into the screen of a pocket-sized box all day, to return dwelling house to an evening spent gazing at another box before falling asleep. Earth spiritualities such as Druidry offering a way out of these boxes congenital effectually us past our mod lifestyle. They encourage the states to enter the natural globe with an open centre and spirit to commune with the trees and the stones, the animals, the earth and the sky. But in improver to simply being with and caring for animals more, Druidry likewise tells us that we can develop relationships with animals that go across the ordinary, and that animals in the Spirit-world also every bit the concrete world can guide and counsel, heal and protect us. They may come up to us in our dreams, we may see them in our meditations, or we may encounter them in the outer globe in magical and synchronistic means. Sometimes the animals that become meaningful for u.s.a. are, in fact, symbolisations of parts of ourselves – the balderdash or equus caballus might limited aspects of our sexuality, the militarist or hawkeye our intellect, for example. A great deal of pioneering work has been done in this field past the psychologist Stephen Gallegos that demonstrates the psychotherapeutic value of working with our hidden fears, urges and wishes which tin exist evoked equally animals that inhabit our inner world. Only ofttimes the animals that we see in dreams or meditations or shamanic journeys are not simply symbolic representations, but are animals that be as objective realities in the Otherworld too equally in the physical earth. They may all the same evoke or resonate with our hidden fears or urges, merely they exist independently of us – and are not just creations of our subconscious or our imaginations. Information technology is these magical animals that offer us special qualities, special 'medicines'.
The gifts of the animals
Nosotros discover the special qualities and gifts which these animals offer through experience – through exploring the world of animals and relating to them out in nature, and through interacting with them in the Otherworld too. The Ovate piece of work in particular is focused on learning how to do this. But in addition to personal experience, we can as well larn from the accumulated feel of our ancestors by studying traditional animal lore, and just as sure copse are associated in the Druid tradition with particular qualities, so sure animals have been establish to mediate particular attributes too. For case: the bear, boar, cat, dog, goose, otter and raven are all associated with the quality of protection; the adder, boar, dog, frog, ram and raven are continued with healing; the owl and raven with initiation, then on. When we demand the qualities or abilities that these animals represent, nosotros can phone call upon them to help united states of america – seeing and relating to them in our inner world, dancing or singing with them, and connecting with them in the outer earth besides.
Raven noesis
In the old stories Druids were sometimes referred to as 'Adders' – those with 'Snake Knowledge' – and sometimes they were described as those with 'Raven Knowledge'. As the associations listed above testify, the raven possesses many attributes – mediating healing, prophetic knowledge, protection, and initiatory power. The raven is seen as a messenger between the two worlds – this and the next – and for this reason we discover ravens buried at the bottom of ancient ritual pits, such as at Danebury in Hampshire. These pits or shafts symbolised the connection between this world and the Otherworld, and the raven was seen as a messenger betwixt the two. The early on Irish Druids divined according to the flight and cries of birds, and in particular the raven, and seeing the raven every bit a bird of divination and prophecy was lodged so firmly in the folk imagination that as late as 1694 in Hertfordshire a raven was reported to have uttered a prophecy three times. Even today the association of the raven with prophecy and protection is openly fostered in the eye of London at the Tower. In the tale of Bran the Blessed, the prophetic god-king Bran (which means 'Raven') asks that his head exist cut off and cached on the White Mount in London, facing the management of French republic. Equally long as his head remained buried there it would protect the kingdom. The Tower of London was later congenital on the site of the White Mount, and the magical protective power of the buried head was symbolised by the presence of ravens, which are kept at the Tower to the present day to fulfil Bran's prophecy and ensure the safety of the realm.
Fauna Oracles, Allies and Familiars
Today we can work with the sacred animals of tradition to gain guidance and insight into our lives, and a number of brute oracles have been adult to help us do this – including The Beasts of Albion and The Druid Animal Oracle.
Sometimes nosotros seem to accept a special connection with one or more than animals – we experience an affinity with them, they come up to us in our dreams, we turn to them in our minds and hearts when we need forcefulness or reassurance. By working with specific techniques to strengthen our bonds with them, these animals can go our spiritual companions, and as our relationship with them deepens, nosotros may feel that they have become our 'familiars' – our totem animals – who stay shut to us and become our magical allies, partners in our journey through life.
The animals themselves so teach us, and nosotros tin describe besides on the fund of animal lore embodied in tradition – in the old stories and sayings that simply demand some thought and time to unlock their secrets, as nosotros can see from the old English language aphorism: Ask the wild bee what the Druids knew.
Adapted from Druid Mysteries by Philip Carr-Gomm
To learn more than come across The Druid Animal Oracle by Philip & Stephanie Carr-Gomm
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There'southward a rich storehouse of inspiration in the teachings of Druidry, which are now more relevant than ever, because they accost the most urgent and important event of our time: how we galvanize all of our potential – including the spiritual – to protect and restore the Earth.
Source: https://druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-animal-lore
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