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A Free Membership
Celtic Druids Newsletter
B Study and Live
at Ireland's Druidschool
C Sli an Drui online
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E Druid's Calendar
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H Astro Natal Chart
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O Lughnasa Games 2012
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customers 2010
Celtic Druids Newsletter
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DRUIDISM >>
THE DRUID'S PATH
Becoming a Celtic Druid today.
First steps on the Path of the Celtic Druid.
To awaken your Celtic Spirit and become a Celtic Druid you first need to prepare yourself to find and then walk the Path. To prepare yourself to walk this Path you must first emerge from confusion - you must escape the lies of history and the media by recognizing them as darkness.Then you can make progress by seeking ancient and deep truths that have instant and real meaning for you. This is your spiritual adventure into a way of being. Exalted consciousness is possible for the Celtic Druid because he / she can see and recognize the Spirit or Light within an idea or thing. It is a Path that does not actually go anywhere but you have to walk it all the time. Its how you walk it that counts - that is to say - if you can walk as a fully conscious being in the now without distractions of the past, immediate worries or fears for the future then you have entered that magic space we refer to as the ‘perfect present’. This is the special place that young children play in. Everything is wonderful for them, two 5 year olds can play together all day not knowing each others names having never met before, sharing toys and ideas... just simply being full of Life.
And then -
As you shed the darkness and lies of false history and stand proud in the Light of truth you will need a good plan to keep your wits about you. You must get rid of the television as its main function is to tell you what to think. Get rid of the radio and buy less newspapers and be discerning when you read ‘new age’ magazines too. By getting rid of the tools of darkness (tv etc) you will begin to hear your own spirit guidance / intuition in a new way. This implies impending inner balance and a shift in your assemblage point or point of perception. You may begin to experience Freedom in the simplest pleasures as you connect more completely to Nature and to Source. Listening to your intuition is hearing your own spirit guidance and this acts to balance excessive thinking thereby helping deepen integration. Another way to say this is when the tv, radio etc is gone then the empty space needs to be filled with Light - this is devotional work, love of another, music and singing, planting trees or even a herb window box, watching the clouds...
Lost in Dreamland
Those who choose to aimlessly float in Dreamland may think they are having a good time. But those who have focused purpose in the same Dreamland can have a terrific time as they make direct and personal contact with the knowledge of the ancestors and with the Source. This focused purpose is crucial to achieving progress on your Path. Methods of accessing the Dreamland are usually refered to as Meditation, Visualisation, Guided Dreaming and for the Celtic Druid it is known as Aisling aka magical dreaming. This has been twisted by some into praying to get what you want without any other effort on your part and this method disempowers people. Conscious co-creation is the expression of focused dreaming in this world and this is crucial to walking your Path.
Focused Purpose in Dreamland
Meditation is actually easy. It is stronger in a group and even stronger again when the group shares a common focus or intention. If you cannot find a safe group (ie non-religious) to meditate with we suggest that you are much better off to meditate by yourself. Ask every group facilitator what focus he or she intends to give to the group dream before you get involved as this often helps align or focus otherwise potential aimlessness. Solitary meditation - get a routine and set out your kit and allow your thinking to slow down and then ease yourself into hearing your spirit guidance. A routine is best because it gets your mind right - plug out the phone and computer, wash your hands and face, light some incense, lay out a blanket and a cushion (not synthetic), light a candle, put on some soft quiet music, loosen any straps or belts and take off your shoes. Allow thinking to bubble up but pay no attention to it. Ask your thinking mind to rest a while while you meditate. The thinking mind may think it will die if it does not have input / control of your reality so you need to appease this by asking it to rest and make it ok with the idea that thinking is suspended for a while but that you will return to thinking later on... Then after many sessions it becomes easier as your mind slips into the right (pre-programmed setting) and you suddenly go deeper with greater ease. Stay at it. Try to do it at the same time each day. Seek a place where you can see the Sun, Moon, Planets or Stars rise and look at this for a while calming the thinking mind before you close your eyes. You can sit in a Yoga position or any comfortable posture or just lay flat on the ground. You can and may fall asleep if thats whats needed and thats good because you may have a sleep debt that needs to be paid off allowing the body to regenerate. Set your mind to get up when the music stops whether you sleep or not and this routine will design your mind to do as you wish.
Moon Dream
The modern calendar is man made. The Celtic Calendar like the First Peoples calendar in the US and both are based on Natural Time supporting your connection to true time and the cycles of Nature. Our ancestors honoured the Moon from Dark to Full and the Sun in Eightfolds of the year and to align with this you need to look up and see whats happening above. Everyone in the world shares the same full moon as it pulls tides and the Earth’s magnetic field, nurses and fire workers and police all get extra overtime at the fullness of the moon but thats based on suffering its fullness instead of enjoying it. Allow your meditation to align with the moon rise every night and ‘tune in’ fully on the night of the full moon. If you can set up your meditation space to allow the moonbeam to wash over you, you may find yourself immersed in the dreamworld at a very deep level so be sure to organise your head to wake up when the music is finished. Dont have any rigid fixed plan or achievement milestone / benchmark cause this is not a test or exam, instead just allow yourself to receive what you can at this time. Expect this to improve as you maintain your practice.
Sun Dreaming.
Eight times of the year the Sun is honoured by the Celtic Druid. Two Solstices and two Equinoxes and Imbolg, Beltine, Lughnasa and Samhain. This occurs at the middle of the Sun’s daily cycle. Disregard all time clocks as the notion of daylight saving is corrupt - a First nations teacher said - Only the government would cut of a foot from the top of the blanket and sew it to the end of the blanket and say that the blanket is longer... Instead of timing midday by time clocks simply set up a shadow caster. This is much easier than you think - the indoors model is - get a stick about as long as your foot and fix it vertically to a board and allow this to be in Sunlight all year round. Mark off the the points of the shadow each day and see a curve establish itself. When the Sun is highest the shadow is shortest this is the true middle of the day. If you have the luxury of some land where the Sun shadow caster can be set up permanently then mark each shadow curve daily with a rock and the layout will resemble a giant landscape Lunala or Golden Sun Shadow disk as used by the ancient Irish Druids. I suggest that midday meditations with the Sun on your face feeds your Lightbody in a special way and this is your second type of meditation in support of your Moon meditation.
Celtic Sun Calendar
The fixed Solstices and Equinoxes have little connection to the prevailing calendar. They are easily identified with even simple online research. The other special days - Imbolg, Beltine, Lughnasa and Samhain are uniquely Irish and cannot be fixed to a modern calendar. My research has shown conclusively that these 4 special Solar days are aligned to the four brightest stars in the belt of the Zodiac. Its complicated to explain here but the current calendar dates for these Sun days are quite close but designed to disconnect you from the true timing - please refer to our calendar in the Press Releases page for the current and true days for honuring the Sun in its Eightfold cycle. Accordingly, you can adjust your Sun Dreaming to connect with the energies of Imbolg, Beltine, Lughnasa and Samhain. Each has its special meaning and connecting with this aligns you with the ways of the ancestors. More on this under Celtic Calendar in this website.
Honour not worship
Now you may notice that I’ve not said worship, instead I prefer to use the concept of honour. This means to recognize the importance of each stage of the Sun cycle and to incorporate it into your worldview. This is about attunement. Religion separates you from God but Spirituality connects you to the Gods. Spiritual means seeking and expressing God and Goddess in everyday life. Celtic Druidism is higher-minded intuition balanced by intellectualism expressing the greatness of spirit; it is a magical path beside the Celtic Stream that leads to the great river of the Cosmic Tradition of the highest awareness.
Ancient Europe can be seen as having three major cultures: Celt, Greek and then Roman. We are told that the Celts, through their intellectual class of Druids did not write about themselves. However the Romans and the Greeks did write about themselves and about Celtic Druidism, which they both sought to replace. They provide us with two groups of opinions on the Druids of Europe and these opinions differ substantially.
As the Path of the Celtic Druid is being rediscovered there is a stream of expression that is romantic and appeals to the dreamer in us, but this diverts us from the full and true expression of the Cosmic Tradition. Celtic Druidism was not a religion - so it did not have a priest hood, but this need may evolve and engender a new Pagan Celtic Church in time to come. Celtic Druidism is the ancient spiritual tradition of Ireland, it roots lie in the oldest temples in this island where many Druidschool still honours the Solar and Lunar cycles. Celtic Druidism is a spiritual path to gaining and holding inner Light and expressing your higher self. This path does not lead anywhere but as a Celtic Druid you have to walk it all the time as you connect to the ancestral ways and the Three Realms. Walking this path is only possible by being balanced and in your centre. To be in your centre is to achieve a ‘balance’ between thinking and intuiting. It is only in your centre that you can discover and express your magical higher self. Being in this balance means being in the godlike awareness we call the 'Witness'. This is where to hold your awareness – i.e. ‘turned on’ and in balance.
Finding the switch is your first real challenge and this is best accomplished by research, evaluation and practice. This is the Celtic Way of Being and the Druidschool Teachings of the modern path has three recognizable stages. This should not be confused with three distinct separate steps – these three stages will overlap and interact with each other and each part of each stage (i.e. begin, middle, end) may have random peaks and valleys as you set out on your adventure into the higher realms of “Being Celtic in the Cosmic Tradition”. The spiritual way is self-transformation - to be reborn into a new you. As Celtic Druids we see it as ‘Lights on and Shiny’ and call the technique – Spiritual Alchemy and our Training Courses do this by taking you into the subtle energy realms of the invisible world for realtime training.
1. Looking for the Celtic Druid path
This is where as a beginner you can begin to build foundation knowledge of the subtle energy of the Three Realms as you awaken your Celtic Spirit. You may have already begun this awakening with other non-druid self-transformation groups but the Druidschool Workshops are designed to build psychic muscle for all our students. Other training activities of Druidschool are in Ritual Ceremony reactivating sacred sites in line with the passage of the Sun and Moon. You will be involved in simple Celtic Ceremonies during the Workshops and you will know why we develop our psychic and intuitive muscle. You will see the shift to the magic realms in yourself as you gain awareness of the rites of passage into your higher self. This is where you may discover that the whispers of Spirit (that are often called conversation with the holy guardian angel) are actually coming from you. You have the chance to create a framework on which to hang your expanded awareness so that this ‘new’ type of knowledge can begin to make some sort of higher sense. This may be seen as paddling in the surf with your trousers rolled up. Without needing to commit to being a druid, you are all welcome. Choosing to become a student with us by taking our Homestudy Course means you will explore the Path with an open heart.
2. Apprenticed as a Celtic Druid
Now you seek focused training so you can stay on the Celtic Path in a magical dimension. As a student on this path you will seek to gain proficiency with magical tools and skills from a series of activities and courses. You are now consciously influencing your own reality and the invisible realms. This stage begins formally when you present for training in the development of your psychic and intuitive skills. You would choose to be here because you plan to become an Student Druid – in Irish this is “an Druí Dalta”. No fee is charged to Druí Dalta for attendance and participation at any Solar or Lunar Ceremonies.
You do not expect results by just paying money or collecting certificates but by holding your awareness focus with the high intention of sustaining self-transformation. You begin to learn by seeing (but not judging) others as they struggle through life and by acknowledging your successes as you gain some new mastery over your own life. Your point of perception (or assemblage point) shifts and you see the world through different eyes. This may be seen as swimming in your depth while staying close to the shore. The Workshops at Druidschool involve Rites of Higher Passage and sustaining your passage is supported by attendance at Ritual Ceremony with the Dark Moon Grove. Sun and Moon Ceremonies are held in the Celtic Language of Gaeilge at Sacred Sites, new and old, all year through out the 32 counties of Eire as shown on the “Druidschool Calendar” (see link at end of this page and in Press Releases)
3.Being a Celtic Druid
As a Celtic Druid, you are a spiritual healer, teacher, counsellor and ceremonial leader. You seek to attend Sun and Moon Ritual Ceremonies at sacred sites. You realise that because you have transformed yourself that the world you live in is also transformed – you know you cannot go back to the ‘old you’ even if you wanted to because you keep on shining brighter as you hold the Light. You begin to see that the many different stages of your life have all always been leading to where you are now. You are in balance and at peace with yourself. Books seem to open on the most appropriate page, messages from spirit are clearer, the things you need (as opposed to the things your ego wants) appear with increasing ease, new teachers appear just as you need them, you feel the invisible realm with your entire reality, you have abandoned judgement of self and others as you purge dead emotions and you hold your light quietly to yourself. This may be seen as swimming in the deep oceans and flying in the sky and standing on the earth = pure being in triplicity. This Training with the Dark Moon Grove is about Co-creating at Ritual Ceremony. This stage of your Path as a Celtic Druid means you have honoured the Ancient Eightfold Solar Year and the Thirteen Moonth of the Lunar Year of the Tuatha De Danann. This stage is "Being" a Celtic Druid.
The Celtic Path gives a Druid the keys to become a Celtic Druid. It may help you recall that that you are already a Celt and a Druid and therefore happy and at One with the Source or God / Goddess. This is the deepest of truth and it is probably the only true role of a Celtic Druid. Modern Celtic Druidism is a path to knowing yourself, to know where you came from, to connect with and activate your incarnational potential, to discover the secrets of the universe, to understand Love, to be happily at One with the Source.
With the inner stillness and peace as a Celtic Druid you can once again connect with God and Goddess as you dissolve any illusions of separation. We all know the truth of Oneness, it is just that we have forgotten it. The Celtic Druid path is a way to remember our purpose, why we must practice meditation and why we must find the Light and dispel the Darkness. As a Celtic Druid you have direct access to Ancestral Gods of Ancient Ireland and to the spiritual realm today, no intermediary is ever needed to pray, meditate or to gain wisdom. Everything, every place and everyone is sacred because all is filled with the spirit of creation. To be a conscious Celt and walk the path as a Celtic Druid today you may find help from using the following –
“Code of Celtic Druidism”
Love Life
Honour the Gods
Do no Evil
Practice Bravery
Seek Wisdom
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