Читать книгу Druidcraft: The Magic of Wicca and Druidry - Philip Carr-Gomm - Страница 22

As the Bard finishes his tale, he plays again upon his harp, until you awake as if from a dream.

‘You will find your teacher by the seashore,’ he tells the assembled company, and so, without a word, you leave the roundhouse with your fellow pupils and take the path down to the beach. It is evening, and as you walk you can see the moon rising in the sky. You pass the tall Scots pines that lie beyond the last of the houses of Avronelle, and looking back you see their lights twinkling in the growing darkness. Ahead of you lies wildness and the vast expanse of ocean. You continue walking, down along the steep path through the gorse bushes, until at last you are by the seashore.

Standing alone, her figure outlined by the silver moonlight on the water, is your teacher – Elidir. You and your fellow pupils sit on the smooth rocks around her, and she invites a young man to step forward. His name is Brendan. Elidir unfurls a rug embroidered with Celtic knotwork and together they sit down and begin a conversation – a formal discussion between teacher and pupil that is known as a Colloquy.

‘I’m glad you’ve come here now – on such a beautiful night. This is the best place to learn about the magic of Druidcraft,’ begins Elidir. ‘Here, at every moment, Nature shows to you the fundamental law of life and of magic – the Law of the Returning Tide.’ For a moment, Elidir is silent, and you find yourself watching the gentle surf, listening to the rhythmic sound of the waves upon the beach.

Then Elidir continues. ‘The Law of the Returning Tide says that whatever you cast into the sea of life returns to you – often changed, often in an unrecognizable form, but nevertheless what comes to you in your life is usually the direct result of what you have given out into the world. Most people are only vaguely aware of this law, or don’t fully accept it, but magicians use it all the time. They deliberately and consciously project positive ideas, energies, images, feelings, thoughts, prayers, chants and spells into the world, knowing fully that they will reap the benefits of these – sometimes quickly but sometimes not for years or even lifetimes. Using your knowledge of this law and the techniques of Druidcraft you can actually work at creating your future lives.’

Brendan speaks: ‘Are you saying that peoples’ lives are simply the result of their past thoughts and actions – that we all create our own reality?’

Elidir smiles at Brendan, but her smile carries a look of sadness in it, ‘I can see that you have thought about this idea,’ she says. ‘It is true that we do create our own reality – that how we experience the world is made up of how we think, feel and act, and the result of those thoughts, feelings and actions as they play out in our lives. But if you believe that is all there is to reality, then you are accusing most of the people in the world of being responsible for their own suffering – all the adults and children dying of illness or starvation, all the people caught up in genocide and armed conflict, anyone who is suffering in whatever way. The fact is that not only do we create our own reality, but we create other peoples’ reality too. Our experience, our lives, are made up of a mixture of influences and events that we have created, and influences and events that others have created as well. It is just too simple to say ‘we create our own reality’. We are social and active beings, and we have an effect on the world and the people around us, just as they have an effect on us. So the people in a famine, for example, however much they may be busy creating positive thoughts and feelings, are caught up in a current that is bigger than their own – they are in a group reality caused by the weather, and economic and political conditions. We live in a sea of consciousness and experience, and we often have a great deal of influence over our immediate environment – the patch of sea around us – but sometimes deep ocean currents can sweep us away or change our lives forever.’

She pauses for a moment, as if to gather her thoughts, not looking at Brendan now, but at the ocean, then she continues, ‘Once you understand that we create our own reality and are part of a collective reality too, that we each contribute to other people’s realities as well as our own, then you can understand the Law of the Returning Tide. It is a law that is played out for us in the world of Nature around us all the time: we reap what we sow, and the harvest from the seeds we have sown is not just ours. This law has been expressed by different spiritual teachers for thousands of years. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the god Thoth says, “Truth is the harvest scythe. What is sown – love or anger or bitterness – that shall be your bread. The corn is no better than its seed, then let what you plant be good.” Thousands of years later, Jesus said, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” The Eastern idea of karma conveys the same idea: that, to a great extent, our present experience is the consequence of our past thoughts, feelings and actions.

‘Druidcraft takes this idea and applies an understanding and practice of magic to it – the idea of consciously sowing seeds for ourselves and others. Once you realize that you help to create other peoples’ reality, you become socially and environmentally responsible – and you do magic not only for yourself, but also for others and the world.

‘I have used the analogy of the sea and the returning tide, but another useful analogy involves seeing everything in life connected by an invisible web. The old Anglo-Saxon magicians called this “The Web of Wyrd” and the Native American Chief Seattle spoke about the way “All is Connected”. Doing magic involves knowing how to work this web, knowing how to radiate along the web to create beneficial effects for yourself and others. The way we do this in Druidcraft is through the art of blessing. Until you understand the power of blessing this can sound vague and weak. After all, how can simply blessing something make any real difference?’

Brendan says, ‘It sounds as if to practise Druidcraft I will have to go around like a priest saying, “Bless you my child”.’

‘No, no,’ smiles Elidir. ‘Think of Witches when they say “Blessed Be” to each other. What does that mean? It’s simply an archaic way of saying, “Bless you” or “May you be blessed”. Think of it another way – think of a blessing as a kiss or a smile. In fact, in Wiccan ceremonies, participants often say “Blessed Be” to each other and then add a kiss. In that way, the term blessing means “love” and “positive energy”. The magic that I am talking about is simply the craft of sowing seeds consciously and with love. It is spiritual gardening, where we sow seeds that bring inspiration and joy to others, and where later we harvest the fruit of our sowing – bringing abundance to our lives.

‘The idea of blessings is that there is a very real energy or current of beneficent force in the Universe and we can consciously and deliberately acknowledge, honour and utilize this current for the benefit of ourselves and others. Like everything in life, if you ignore something it will tend to go away. If you give it attention, it will tend to come into your life. So it is with this magical current.’

‘Yes, but what is it?’ asks Brendan.

‘You could call it the love of the Goddess or God, or the fundamental building force of Creation, as opposed to the fundamental breaking-down force. Some might even see it as Good, as opposed to Evil. Soon we will explore its source. But whether or not we know what it is, we all know when our life seems blessed, and when it sometimes seems most definitely not blessed! Some clairvoyants say they can tell the difference between objects that have been blessed and those that have not. We believe it is a current that is most definitely real, and that it is also the source of healing.

‘Remember a time someone touched you and you could feel the love and warmth in their hands or their embrace? It felt like an energy was coming into you, didn’t it? Magic says it is an energy and that you can consciously direct it!

‘And in radiating this energy, somehow you don’t lose energy yourself. Instead, it comes to you in even greater quantities – the more you give the more you receive. This is the Law of the Returning Tide. It is so easy to prove with the phenomenon of the returning smile. Try smiling at someone for no reason. Most often they will smile back. This is just a small example. In a wider sense, the path of magic teaches us that we can radiate blessings effortlessly and joyfully and that, in return, blessings will flow into our life in increasing abundance.

‘The returning smile comes back to you fast, but blessings can take years or even lifetimes to reach you. It is vital that you radiate blessings without thought of their return, otherwise they don’t really radiate – they stay attached to your ego, to your own needs and desires, and don’t seem to travel out into space. The trick is simply to radiate goodwill and positive energy in the knowledge that the Law of the Returning Tide will mean that ultimately you will benefit from them, but that is not your purpose in generating them. You simply let go of any attachment to receiving anything, and enjoy the feeling of giving.

‘You see, the art of blessing is just the opposite to the art of cursing. In a nutshell, that’s the difference between good and evil magic.

‘A magician is someone who realizes that they can consciously direct this force for good or ill. Only foolish or mentally ill people use it to harm; if they were intelligent or sane they would know about the Law of the Returning Tide, and they would know that everything they did would be revisited on them at a later date, often magnified in intensity. That’s another law that you’ll soon discover – that just as a tidal wave picks up speed and height the further it travels, so the waves of this energy can sometimes increase hugely in intensity over distance and time.

‘Think back over your life and you might find that you once did some small thing – smiled, talked to someone, made a decision you thought was minor – and years later you can see that the consequences of this were vast, and have changed your life profoundly. This is how this law works, and that is why it is vital to grasp this at the beginning of your training, otherwise you can make some very silly – and unfortunate – mistakes. The story of the selkie was about this, amongst many other things. It was about the difference between a compassionate and generous approach to life – the one shown by the selkie and her son – and a selfish, grasping attitude – the one shown by Taggart.

‘It is a story about being human. We all face dilemmas and sadness in our lives, and somehow we must follow our hearts against all odds. And yet we must still give and bless – as did the Selkie by leaving fish every day on the rocks. In the end, maybe there is no difference in essence between giving and compassion, love and blessing.’