Category: Meditations

Please study the evacuation route in case of emergency

Post author By Bogatyr
Post date May 20, 2022
No Comments on Please study the evacuation route in case of emergency

In my last period of paid employment – “last” in the sense of “most recent”, but also possibly meaning “final” – I frequently stayed in high-end hotels whilst travelling for business. There was always a small map on the back of the room door, showing the evacuation route to be taken in the event of a fire or other emergency. Of course, I rarely looked – I didn’t really ever imagine there would be any need and, if there was, I would be able to work out how to reach safety.

Well, the time has come. Not just for me, but for all of us in the global West, because we are in a high Tower and it is falling. Gwyn ap Nudd has provided no map and no evacuation route: each of us will have to find our own way to safety.

Tags Stephan Lessenich

Abred Annwn Archetypes Awen Barddas Bardism Culture Cymru - Wales Deities Druidic Virtues Druidry Education Gwynfyd Insight Iolo Morganwg Knowledge Learning Meditations Morality Polytheism Reflections Reincarnation Religion The Mabinogion Theology Wisdom

Druidry and God in Bardism

Post author By Bogatyr
Post date February 18, 2022
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As I’ve made clear, this blog is my process of exploring the writings of Iolo Morganwg in Barddas, the source of contemporary Revival Druidry, and trying to put it into modern terms as a system firmly rooted in the authentic Welsh cultural tradition.

That means going beyond Barddas itself: recognising that the Four Branches of the Mabinogi contain a pantheon of ancient Brythonic deities, for example. My experience is that they exist; they are real, and represent real powers. Barddas, however, comes from Iolo’s spiritual insights, rooted in a Christian background, and his writings are full of references to God. Can these things be reconciled? I believe that they can.

Tags Awenyddion, Olodumare, Orisha, Santeria, Spirit medium, Yoruba religion

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Wanted: a Druidry for the end of our world

Post author By Bogatyr
Post date August 1, 2021
3 Comments on Wanted: a Druidry for the end of our world

‘Pareidolia’ is the trait humans have for seeing patterns which aren’t really there – such as seeing a rabbit on the moon, or Elvis in an oddly shaped carrot. In my case, it’s seeing the end of the world in a patch of damp plaster on the wall.

Still, one of the key tenets of Iolo Morganwg’s Bardism is “Y Gwir yn Erbyn y Byd” – The Truth Against the World. As Druids, we need to find out what is true – and we need to champion it even when it is unpopular or unpalatable.

Tags Club of Rome, Collapse, Gaya Herrington, KPMG, Limits to Growth

Abred Annwn Barddas Community Druidic Virtues Druidry Ethics Insight Iolo Morganwg Knowledge Learning Meditations Morality Reincarnation Theology Values Wisdom

The Loom of Life

In Welsh Druidry, we believe in reincarnation, and the gradual journey of the soul from Annwn, through untold incarnations in our own world of Abred, until it has become sufficiently wise to leave material incarnation behind and progress to Gwynfyd, the existence of purely spiritual life:

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Thoughts on Druidic belief and authority

Post author By Bogatyr
Post date March 13, 2021
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I wrote this as a contribution to a discussion that’s ongoing in the members’ forums of the Druid Network. Those are private, so I thought I might post it here so that a broader audience can read it and contribute their thoughts.

Tags Neal Stephenson, Sir Ken Robinson, TED Talks, The Diamond Age

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Spiritual struggle and the way we frame the world

Post author By Bogatyr
Post date November 28, 2020
4 Comments on Spiritual struggle and the way we frame the world

I was recently reading a Substack article by Rod Dreher, a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which led me to this piece by David Bentley Hart. Hart talks about a man called Reuben, who he met many years ago in Lancaster, England. I haven’t read anything by Hart before; Dreher, though devout in his Christian faith, has a mystic aspect to his faith which often overlaps the Druidic worldview. Hart has this to say of Reuben:

Tags David Bentley Hart, Rod Dreher, The American Conservative

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On being inspired by Gwyn ap Nudd

Post author By Bogatyr
Post date October 18, 2020
No Comments on On being inspired by Gwyn ap Nudd

I’ve recently been contemplating Gwyn ap Nudd, and my relationship with him. Unlike others such as Lorna Smithers, I have taken no vows and entered into no formal commitment. I am still exploring my relationship with the Gods of the Welsh and different gods, at different times, communicate things to me.

And yet, Gwyn ap Nudd’s voice has been the most insistent. Based on what he has told me, and which I conveyed in a series of posts on this blog, Gwyn is mobilising to restore balance to the world. Humanity has become too damaging to the world of nature, and to the forests – which are a part of his domain. Humanity has become too dangerous, and too damaging, to the Fair Folk, the Tylwyth Teg, who reside in this world as well as in the Otherworld.