I am midway through my two-year training in Celtic Shamanism with Tom Cowan (His website is www.riverdrum.com). Something Tom has encouraged us to practice during our study of Celtic shamanism is memorizing and reciting poetry, which honors the ancient bard tradition. The bards studied for over 20 years, committing to memory all of the epic tales and poems of Celtic …
The Power of Symbols
The Celts believed that the feminine creative principle (potential or pure consciousness) required the force of the masculine creative principle (will or action) in order for life to take place. Neither can create under its own steam. When the two come together it makes being, existence, life. This is called Ur, and its symbol is the egg or a five-layered …
I’ll Take Romance
The Celts loved the betwixt and between—it’s where all the power of possibility was said to lie. But here I am caught in the betwixt and between of the pain and disappointment of a romance that’s ended and the fear of recreating that pain in one that has yet to begin. Not so powerful a feeling—just powerful icky. Neil Young’s …
Spinning Wheel
Today I am preparing for a workshop I have taught several times before on the Celtic Medicine Wheel. I have changed it yet again, expanded it some, removed and rearranged other stuff. As always, I am at the point of worry, when the structure hasn’t quite gelled and there are many more things to think through before the content is …