We are taking you on our journey of reviving the Druid’s way of living. Following the trails back to our spiritual ancestry and their ways of communing with the natural world. Learning how to connect with and how to read the land. To learn from our natural surroundings, from the Mother and her cycles of life-dead-life, of transformation and evolution. Continuously creating new life to restore balance, harmony and natural order. Let the journey begin …
The story starts, not so long ago, in a not so far away place called ‘Orvelte’, which is located in the old province of ‘Drenthe’, in the North-East of the Land of the Sourcerers (i.e. ‘Holland’ or ‘the Netherlands’). We arise with the rising Sun in the East, greeted by the morning songs of birds. The landscape is wrapped in a misty blanket. Dew drops under our feet as we start our walk. White widows are waving at us from the fields that surround us. The land is slowly awakening… The energy feels foggy, heavy and loaded with moist. A sleeping consciousness, that awakens more and more as the light and warmth of the day increase. More energy, more life and more movement is set in motion.
Our first stop is at an old fence, where on one side of the fence we see heather surrounded by forest. On the inside of the fence lay a group of old stones. Remains from Germanic times. On the other side of the fence we look out over fields of farmers. As if the fence marks the border between old and new.
The water of the ditch next to the field is filled with algae. A sign that a lot of fertilizer is being sprayed, used in the country. This drains into the groundwater, now the water becomes saturated with a surplus of nutrients. The algae compensate for this surplus by eating these nutrients and thereby producing more algae, thick green blankets fills the ditches next to the lands.. Is this how we wish to treat the land? How we want to treat our natural surroundings, how we want to treat the Mother we live with? Within our bodies we feel some resistance and nausea, which makes us wonder if they are using chemicals or pesticides to grow their crops.
The tractor rules in these lands, flattening the land and sowing it with a monoculture of fields full of one and the same crop. Breaking down nature with blunt machinery and narrow views on farming. But how are these people to blame, when they are subject to strict regulations from governments and are trying to survive and take care of their own family's.
There is a lot of sadness stored within these lands. The old concentration camp ‘Westerbork’ is only a few kilometres away. The war that raged this area happened less than a century ago and is still more alive in us than most people are aware off. Still we observe people fighting against nature, with each other and fighting inner wars with themselves. They don’t recognize themselves anymore in each other and in the nature that surrounds them. Men has imposed himself on the land. Imposing its will and dominating nature with machinery and physical force, like we have seen throughout history in many patriarchal regimes. In which the feminine, the Mother, loses out and is left supressed and malnourished.
As we are about to continue our journey, we softly declare our intention: “May each step we take be a step of peace, of love and harmony. May we leave a new imprint on these lands, to support its restoration into natural order and balance.”
After following the path for a while, we arrive at a large, dark pool. A kind of swamp or wetlands. As we approach the water, we are welcomed by a croaking orchestra of frogs. The puddle is shallow and the bottom covered with grass. The water is dark brown. All tannic acids, tannins from leaves and peat are dissolved in the water, making the water darkbrown & acidic. It is as if we are standing near a big primordial soup. Incredibly fertile soil. It is as if the pool has been created here as a kind of Mother’s womb, a large pelvic bowl. Collecting all the pain and sadness of the land, so that it can be purified by the powers of the water.
We leave the pond on a path that has been flattened by a tractor. Dry mown branches of heather stick out from the ground, which are anything but gentle for our feet. Here we bare witness of the pain the land feels, as our feet feel & tell us the story.
Further on we arrive at a crossroads with large old stones. Quartz crystal, silicon dioxide or silica. Most of the stones you see and find are made of silicon dioxide, it is the degree of purity that makes it a clear crystal or a pebble. We settle down at the stones…
Here at the stones we can feel through all layers of pain and sorrow, the older layers of this area and the knowledge and wisdom that once lived here. An energy that seems to be put asleep through the layers that have been forcefully put over it.
It is this ancient knowledge and wisdom that can be so valuable to what is going on today. Connection to the land we live on. Knowledge of the plants by connecting with the plants and obtaining gnosis by means of the authentic experiences gained with the plant. Working with the plants and feeling, experiencing, what their medicine brings. Not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
We too can regain access to this knowledge. Through curiosity we allow ourselves to discover, explore and reconnect with nature, and the knowledge and wisdom she carries, in a playful way.
Before we turn homewards. We settle down one last time under an old oak tree. Here we tell eachother the story of the oak, which is called ‘Dair’ in the Ogham alphabet of the Druids. Oak is ruler over the 7th Lunar Month, from June 10th till July 7th (in later posts we will introduce you to the stories of the trees). Here we make some offerings to the tree. We thank the land, the Earth and ask for harmony, balance, peace, abundance and prosperity. That a symbiotic relationship with nature may be further discovered and applied on a large scale. That more and more people may be aware of initiatives such as permaculture and food forests and the symbiosis achieved through them. And yield that which is not only gained from the harvesting of crops, but that what makes up the whole of relationships, growth and evolution between all the parts involved. In which humans, animals, plants and trees are given the opportunity to grow and evolve in harmony and co-creation.
We are excited to experience how the journey may unfold. To discover what has been covered. To unveil what has been veiled...
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