The Druidic festival of Alban Arthan, Swords and the issues of Mummery
The Precision of Purity comes to a Place of Enantiodromia
Good Morning everyone,
It has been an awkward year for a variety of reasons, for most people on our planet. Given everything which happened from 2020 through 2022, this current state of life would not be all that surprising. Those years felt like a tsunami of hate, fear, social disruption and desecration, which are energies usually experienced by people during times of literal war. The recent past may well have been a war, but it certainly wasn’t literal in the traditional sense of a global armed conflict. However, it does also seem to be that a line has been drawn in the sand, to mark the slow death of a long era where our culture has been all about the precision of purity. That has certainly had its place in our overall evolution, but now that purity has become a ‘death by molecule’ pogrom, it is definitely the time to move onto other energies and discover, or re-discover, some new fields of energy.
I don’t believe that we are going to continue travelling in the same direction from which we have come. It is more likely that we are entering into a period of enantiodromia, whereby all which has gone before is now overheating and it will flip, transmute, and turn into something else altogether. This would be the processes of Alchemy in action, and the scent of it is certainly in the air, or in the psychic field. The mantra of ‘There is so much more to be done’ might just be done with, and we might be able to think instead that ‘There is so much more which we could do’. If that is indeed the process with which we are involved, I think it would be a good thing as we now have to opportunity to look again at what has become obvious, to see what is behind, and to see what is behind even that.
As the year 2023 is fading, swords have come into my personal surrounding field again in a variety of ways. Whenever this happens, I have found that it is a reliable marker of change which is to come. In one instance, I was sitting in a bus and a fellow passenger came and sat in the seat directly across from me. He was carrying what was clearly a sword in a case, together with a small shield. Well, it was certainly obvious to me, as a sword-centric person, but I doubt that anyone else on the bus noticed. I struck up a conversation with him, discovering in the process that he was travelling home after an enactment game with a group of friends, male and female.
These situations happen from time to time, probably in the context of a literal gathering which is inspired by computer games such as Assassin’s Creed or television programs such as Vikings, though there are also clubs where people seriously enact the battles of the Crusades era as well. There are elements of an almost mystical nature or individual self-empowerment involved in such activities, as my fellow bus passenger explained to me while we discussed the ancestral heraldry which he had chosen for his personal shield design. Sometimes, we must reach from far behind us, to be creative in the present, in order to make our way into the future.
Such events as my fellow passenger are involved with are probably easy for many people to dismiss as ‘game’, as in our current predilection for ‘Blame, Shame and Game’. But there is much to the phenomenon, including some serious archaeological revisitation and an experiential expansion of cultural understanding, all of which have undergone a thorough revolution while the general world was obsessively distracted with the purity of molecules. Our conversation quickly moved onto the conjectural frameworks which now surround the issues of ‘Druid’, and the fundamental problem that no one seems to know exactly what or who Druids actually are or were. Never mind that we have also lost track of much of the Celtic spiritual world of Europe which existed in the eras before the imported religion of Christianity suffocated the ancient and native ways, compounding the difficulties brought by the Roman Empire. Meanwhile, here we are in the days before Christmas, but what came before that was invented, if anything?
Well, some of us do actually have some understanding of the Druidic traditions and other cultural processes which came before the Roman and then the Christian eras… A long time ago, I had exposure to Welsh and Scottish people of all sorts. Then sometime after that, I did a vast amount of what is called ‘Dream Recovery’ work, using an Arthurian Tarot (by John and Caitlin Matthews), both for others and for the growth of my own soul. In that Tarot system, there is a suit of swords, and the ‘Ace’ of that suite in particular, is definitely a symbol of empowerment and new beginnings, in the Celtic way of such situations.
The December period Solstice which the Druidic world celebrated is called Alban Arthan. Being held at a Solstice point, it is a time of peak energy and a time of promise yet to come. So again, something of the potentiality of the Alchemic energies of Enantiodromia are possible at such a time and most cultures of the world held the Solstices in great esteem. A solstice is a good time to contemplate the matters of swords, or to draw a sword in a mystical way, such as a Tarot reading. Such a card, the Ace of Swords, did figure prominently in a formal Tarot reading which I enjoyed with Farah Deba today, so something of a personal new beginning is definitely in the field. From that will come many things…
Suffice to say, every so called ‘race’ or culture has its own dreamings and its own soul urges. Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to access the powers which our souls may be carrying through time, because our religions, our intellectualism and the various commercial frameworks of modern life tend to get in the way of our soul urges and spirit yearnings. We have Christmas, which is vaguely indicative of Alban Arthan, we are aware of Halloween, and some are aware that it was derived from the Celtic Samhain, but there are many other buried celebrations and energies which we might like to revisit in our own ways.
Unfortunately, I am also aware that when I say something like ‘Celtic’ or ‘Druid’ or ‘Arthurian’, it can conjure up concept of the Medieval Romances or ‘Camelot’, or Raiders of the Lost Ark or even the Lord of the Rings movies. I am not referencing such material, I am talking about the ancient Celtic tales and the recovery dreaming done from those works by many, many scholars and other mystic types. The matters of the REAL New Age, if you like, re-discovered in many ways, including the type of enactments which my bus-ride friend had been involved with and the imagery of the Arthurian Tarot. Never mind the entertainments, sometimes in life, in order to ‘go there’, you literally have to actually go there…
In the Medieval Grail Romances, there is mention of a stone into which a sword is embedded. It then gets messianic, of course; in the sense of holding out for a hero of some description who will come to save us by drawing the impossible sword from the stone. This is a classic, reductionist, devolved version of a much older, Druidic spiritual principle. These devolutions are always an incorrect literalisation of something which was once quite sacred, so they in effect, function as a de-powering of matters which were originally life-giving.
Swords can be many things of course, and mystically blessed swords, can be used for many such purposes. Empowerment, the drawing up of the magnetic and metaphysical energies of Earth into an environment, bestowment of honour and privilege, or as an image for contemplation about one’s own abilities, burdens in life and possibilities. Standing swords, laid swords, hanging swords, tattoos involving sword imagery, the use of swords in art and architecture for the purposes of memory and transformation; there are various methods suitable to a multitude of purposes in your life, if you wish to choose them.
In conjunction with the sacred and mystical uses of swords, these types of spiritual matters can also be summed up rather directly by the metaphorical issues of personal symbology. In the Celtic craft which I come from, there are also ‘Druid Marks’ or ‘Man’s Marks’ or ‘Signs of the Pendragon’ and the use of such in writings, art and on swords. These symbols are held in great esteem, for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, soul access to ancient bloodline powers and abilities. One commonly held outworking of such things is the resurgence of tribal tattoos, often of Celtic design, amongst younger people in today’s word.
Astrologically speaking, such matters are Chiron / Venus energy (in the male) and Mars in a personal chart, as access to the sentience of civilisations past, present and future. In native Australian terms, it is scarification, the ‘Secret Business’ of initiation and the ability to access song-lines. In literature, the ‘Qur’an’ or the ‘Bible’ on this subject, is the book Iron John by Robert Bly, which is derived from ancient Northern European mythological poetry which in itself, would appear to be from an even older oral trail history. All of the ancient traditions are the same, fundamentally, and we all have the ability to access them, if we can get past all of the dogma of life in which we are sometimes drowning. Not to mention the purity obsessions of those whose religion is based on the search for molecules…
Swords, Tarot, Art, architecture, dreamings and the journeys of the soul. All of these issues are foundational aspects in the upcoming Obsidian series of novellas as well. Here is a small extract from one of them, regarding the mystical birth of a sacred sword.
Extract from The Obsidian Mirror: The Dragon Form.
“The event was a commemoration of his life, as the time had come for him to go to ground, to enact a leaving from the many years of his duty in the world of the Darker Light and immerse himself in the magnetic energies of the earth. The dynamic of the conjoined worlds was changing. The time had come to bunker down and sleep in the metaphorical earth. In such a place of withdrawal and seclusion, he would wait until the coming of the Dragon form of his maleness, if indeed such a gifted state was to be achieved by him in this particular life embodiment.
To enact such a leaving and to provoke the change in his life, The Man had received a blessed sword at the celebratory gathering which was held on the island. It was arranged through the women of the ‘Place of Mysteries’ and selected from a range which they always keep in the showroom. His sword had been made by Marto in Spain, a family owned business with roots traceable back in time to the days of the Roman Empire and possibly, much longer. The style was Celtic, the form was that of the mythological Excalibur, one of Marto’s most requested models.
The invitations to the event of the sword’s birthing were sent as a poem, written on a thick, rolled paper, somewhat representative of the way that an important papyrus would have been dispatched in the ancient times of Egypt. The invitation was tied with a red ribbon and a wax seal which had the imprint of his personal Man’s Mark on it. Those who attended the event were asked to write their messages and their blessing for The Man on these ribbons and bring them to the event on the night.
The jetty where The Man was now standing was the exact place where he greeted his guests for the night, before a small taxi boat shuttled them to the island for the celebrations. The building on the island had many windows looking out over the water to the city beyond. There was a wide viewing platform with a railing so that the guests could take pleasure in the view and feel the energizing touch of the fresh sea breeze. The room was arranged with a long table positioned in the centre with a dark red cloth draped over its full length, falling to the floor. The sword was displayed on this table, surrounded by numerous red candles burning brightly as they gave off a headily spiced perfume.
As the guests arrived, they were ushered towards the displayed sword where they tied their ribbons bearing the messages of blessing to the gleaming blade. Many different people came to this event, mirroring the various aspects of the Paler Life of The Man in the world of business as well as the inner life companions of the Darker Light journey and its pursuits. The night had been a very successful celebration, marking of the turn of the life of The Man from the sexual warrior Work of the Tribal Leatherman form, towards the welcoming of the Dragon form of his wisdom, within the spirit of the era to come.
The mystical women who blessed the sword for him had also attended the ceremony that night. He stayed for a while on the jetty, thinking about the celebration and the friends and comrades in the journey of life who had attended. He thought in particular, of one of the mystic women. Her name was Roberta. The Man had visited with her and her mystical gifts many times over the years, for guidance in his own life and to direct his path as a Dominant, with regard to the many submissives and slaves with whom he was interacting at the time. The Man loved Roberta and he remembered fondly, his sessions with her in the dingy reading room of her rented house, filled with smoke from her cigarettes as she cast the cards and spun the wheels of the astrological charts.”
I’d like to finish this post on the upswing, so let’s briefly take a look at the Mummers. There is a sort of parade of the Mummers in Philadelphia which can be traced back to the early 1900s. It is something like a Mardi Gras or Halloween event. But the Mummery and the Mummers, again, are a very old concept and again, they can be traced back to the much older Indo-European, Celtic cultures. There is a decent article on the issue available (HERE), but let’s come into an Alban Arthan mood by having a little fun with the celebration aspect of Mummery. The singer Loreena McKennitt has a song called The Mummer’s Dance, the quite celebratory video clip of which, you can enjoy (HERE).
Have a great 2024 everyone! Remember the Dragons, and the swords, and your soul.
Larry