Each creature is seen in Druidry as offering gifts of inner knowledge, vitality and healing. We know that animals can provide us with food and clothing, but here the idea is that they can offer us 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 extraordinary bonds that can form between us as humans and the animals we love.
Telepathic connections with pets are frequently reported, and have become the basis of scientific experiments, and it has now been proved that pet ownership in the elderly prolongs life and promotes good health. All this shows that animals do indeed offer us the gifts of vitality and healing, and clearly we in turn can help them with our care 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 us not only by physically connecting with an animal. Sometimes it simply isn’t practical to stroke a snake or lion for example, but Druids believe they can still receive this energy and interact with the animal in the Otherworld.
This mysterious realm is sometimes called the Spiritworld. Some might think it imaginary, others might see it as another term for the Collective Unconscious, but Druids believe it is a world to which we sometimes travel in sleep or meditation, and which we enter at the death of our physical body. There, in this parallel universe of the Otherworld, are trees and plants, animals and birds, humans and nature-Spirits.
Just as our outer world contains a host of different environments and beings who inhabit them, so too with the Otherworld, and part of the training of Druidry lies in developing the ability to consciously travel in this world – so that in dreams and meditation, and on death, we can navigate within it. Many of the old 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, we 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 trees, and swimming in its deep waters are five large salmon who feed on the hazelnuts. Five streams representing the five senses flow from the well, which is also 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 five senses.
Telepathic connections with pets are frequently reported, and have become the basis of scientific experiments, and it has now been proved that pet ownership in the elderly prolongs life and promotes good health. All this shows that animals do indeed offer us the gifts of vitality and healing, and clearly we in turn can help them with our care 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 us not only by physically connecting with an animal. Sometimes it simply isn’t practical to stroke a snake or lion for example, but Druids believe they can still receive this energy and interact with the animal in the Otherworld.This mysterious realm is sometimes called the Spiritworld. Some might think it imaginary, others might see it as another term for the Collective Unconscious, but Druids believe it is a world to which we sometimes travel in sleep or meditation, and which we enter at the death of our physical body. There, in this parallel universe of the Otherworld, are trees and plants, animals and birds, humans and nature-Spirits.
Just as our outer world contains a host of different environments and beings who inhabit them, so too with the Otherworld, and part of the training of Druidry lies in developing the ability to consciously travel in this world – so that in dreams and meditation, and on death, we can navigate within it. Many of the old 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, we 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 trees, and swimming in its deep waters are five large salmon who feed on the hazelnuts. Five streams representing the five senses flow from the well, which is also 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 five senses.