Forests Of the Vampire: Slavic Myth

Book Review: Forests of the Vampire: Slavic Myth by Charles Phillips and Michael Kerrigan (Time-Life Books Myth and Mankind Series 1999)

Even though the title is not very apt this is a good introductory book about Slavic myth and folklore. It is a big format book with many beautiful color pictures. There is good information on both pre-Christian and post-Christian Slavic lore. There is much Slavic history here as well.

Originally the Slavic tribes lived west of the Carpathian Mountains in modern-day Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. Later they moved west and south past the Danube and Elbe Rivers, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, into the Balkan Peninsula and to lands just north of Greece so now ethnic Slavic influence ranges over a fairly vast area. Many of these areas had populations of humans since Paleolithic times and settled Neolithic farming communities are well-documented mainly in the southern parts of these areas. The Dacians and Thracians were known as fierce warriors and managed to hold off assaults by the Greeks and Romans. In late Roman times most Slavs were not militaristic and lived as farming subjects of the Goths and then the Huns. Christian conversion in Slavic lands began with Bulgaria (mixed with Bulgar Turks) in 870 AD and Kievan Rus (modern day Ukraine) in the late 900’s. I think the tribes in Poland converted a little after this. Slavs in western regions adopted Western Christianity and those in the east adopted Eastern Christianity. The arrival of the Magyars in Hungary around 900 AD served to split up the western Slavs into western and southern portions. Slavic languages began to differ as a result. Russian oral epics called byliny stretch back in time although compiled in the 10^th to 12^th centuries which were the heyday of Kievan Rus. They share some similarities to the Turkic epics. The Viking merchants and mercenaries called Varangians helped to form the Kievan state. In the late 800’s a monk called Constantine (later called Cyril) devised a written script for Slavs – the Cyrillic alphabet. Kievan Rus was a pagan state for 150 years or so before Prince Vladimir accepted Byzantine Christianity. After this, Byzantine architecture was adopted and further developed in Russia where buildings from the 11^th century still stand. Of course, the farming peasants of Russia, Poland, and other Slavic areas kept up many very old pagan traditions. It is debated whether the pagan deities in Kiev were distinctly Slavic or were brought in or influenced by the Scandinavian Varangians. A city in the north called Novgorod was established and the reign of Vladimir’s son Yarisleif was praised.

The early Slavs were certainly influenced by the Sarmatians and Scythians – Persian or Indo-Iranian tribes who practiced a dualistic religion – probably some version of Zoroastrianism. The deities Chernobog (Black God) and Belobog (White God) represented the dualistic conflict of earth and sky, darkness and light. Svarog was a Slavic sky god – og being a Persian suffix – perhaps he resembled the Indo-Aryan Savitri as a solar sky deity. In folktales lightning was often the dynamic gaze of a god or giant. Svantovit was a war god in Baltic areas where temples were found on Rugen Island in the Baltic Sea north of Eastern Germany. Svantovit means ‘strong lord’ and was often depicted with four heads oriented to the cardinal directions. He was also a fertility and harvest god. A white horse was sacred to him and used for divination. Much of the information about Svantovit and other Rugen gods comes from the 12^th century Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus. Apparently other multi-headed god-forms were also popular in the Baltic areas.

The source for most early Russian pagan descriptions comes from the 11^th century Primary Chronicles of Nestor also called Tale of Bygone Years. In Kiev, the main war-thunder god was Perun. Perun wielded a club, a battle-axe, and a spear. He has similarities to both Thor and Indra. His motif as riding in a flaming chariot led to him being later identified with the biblical prophet Elijah who was called Ilya among the Russians. The sun and the hearth of home were the centers of sacred activities.  The 10^th century Arab traveler Al-Masudi mentioned a temple in Slavic lands that was used to observe the sunrise. The moon, as Mesyats, was called the uncle of the sun god. Dawn and dusk were fair maidens and the seven planets were judges. Comets were celestial messengers. Russian tales speak of the moon as wife to the sun and the stars being their children. In the Ukraine the sun was the wife of the moon – Mesyats.

“Scholars have established that Svarog (and his sons) ... were the only gods known to all Slavic peoples....... The derivation of Svarog’s name may be linked to svarga, the word for sky or sun in Sanskrit...”

There was also Volos, a cattle god and Simargl, the sacred griffin. Simargl, the dragon bird almost certainly derives from the Persian Simorgh who occurs in stories of Persian lore as a benevolent yet powerful mother bird goddess. She was Simarg among the Sarmatians. Indeed the bird goddess may be very old in Eastern Europe as Neolithic art and figurines depict. Volos is also associated with a prehistoric god of flocks and forests and hunting wild animals. He was venerated along with Perun. Mokosh, the mother goddess of the moist black earth is also likely a very old fertility goddess-form. Mokosh is said to give life-bestowing waters. Scholars think that the motif of a mountain woman with raised hands (in the manner of chthonic Greek goddesses such as Pandora) depicts Mokosh. She is popular among Russian women who spin, weave, and wash. She is also known as Mat’ Syra Zemlya (Moist Mother Earth). Another deity is the wind god Stribog, grandfather of the winds. So the main sources for Slavic deities are from the Balts and from Kievan Rus and both may have been strongly influenced by Scandanavian and possibly Finnish god-forms. This suggests older Slavic pantheons that may have faded away. Perun has been compared to Parjanja, a warrior aspect of Indra, and Volos has been compared to the Vedic Varuna due to the association with cattle.

Orthodox Christianity, of course, co-opted the old pagan feasts. The Mid-summer festival of Kupala where the Bacchus-like hero-god Ivan Kupala was worshipped and burned in bonfire effigy amidst orgiastic behavior became associated with the feast of John the Baptist. Tree spirits and the water spirits, called rusalki, were also venerated at this time. Other festivals revolved around spring, autumn, and midwinter in typical nature-religion fashion. Dragon-slaying myths, which likely evolved from the original story of Indra slaying the serpent-demon Vritra, were popular, especially as a means to convey the triumph of Christianity over paganism, as seems to be the case in many places. The tale of the Christianized hero Dobrynya slaying the dragon is the most notable.

Russian folktales are full of magic. Some magical implements of note are the club and the tablecloth. Ritual towels with symbolic depictions of Mokosh were hung on birch trees and at crossroads. Other symbols of Mokosh are the eight-pointed star (also a symbol of Inanna and other goddesses), birds, and the color red. A heroine (and hero’s prize) of several folktales is the princess known as Vasilisa the Wise. The healing ‘water of life’ and the deadly ‘water of death (kept by figures such as the witch goddess Baba Yaga) appear in many tales. The goddess Rod and the twin goddesses – the rozhanitsy, are associated with birth, reproduction, and the cult of ancestors which is popular in Slavic lands. House spirits, called domovoi, are often given offerings as are ancestors in cemeteries. Domovoi were depicted as shaggy dwarves. They are to be placated but are also protective of house and farm. The prevalence of the ancient mother-goddess cult has given us the concept of Mother Russia, having a substrate as a matriarchal culture. Lands and rivers and forests were populated with various forms of spirits and demons. In the bathhouses lived the dangerous and unpredictable bannik spirits. The ovinnik, was the spirit of the barnyard, depicted as black cat-like creature of considerable danger and power. Spirits of the forest were called leshii. They could be dangerous and cruel but many tales abound where they were outwitted. Baba Yaga appears in many Russian and Slavic folk tales and sometimes is like Hekate, sometimes evil and to be overcome, and at other times beneficial in the end. She is usually associated with danger and as a villain witch. She is said to live deep in the forest in a house with chicken legs. She was often associated with death and entrance to the Underworld. She even helped the heroine Vasilisa the Beautiful in one tale, giving her a lighted skull so she could find her way through the forest.

Death as a journey was a common motif in pre-Christian Slavic lore. This they shared with the Celts, Norse, and perhaps the Greeks and other Indo-European peoples. Some notables were buried in boats like Scandinavian nobles. As in ancient Greek lore, coins were offered as fare for the death journey. A very ancient belief in the bird and bird goddess as carrying off and aloft the souls of the dead also persists. The rainbow and the Milky Way were two possible pathways on the long death journey. There was an idea of the ‘paradise of the setting sun’ in the west (as in Celtic lore). There was also a land to the east called Rakhmane where a happy and holy people lived. Some scholars take this to be India and the Rakhmane refers to the word and land of Brahmins. This lore comes from the Galicians of Poland. There was another curious death motif of the need after death to climb a very steep mountain. In this scenario claws would be very beneficial and it is said that in Lithuania wild beasts were killed and buried with the deceased to assist them in their climb. Jewelry with claws and retaining clipped nails was common. Ladders were also buried with the dead and later on small ladders made out of bread. Lands of the dead for the just and unjust were called Rai (like heaven), Nava, and Peklo (like hell). Tales of heroes (often named Ivan) questing to meet their destiny were possible metaphors of the soul’s journey through the Underworld. These tales of destiny are called skazki.

Tales of blood sucking demons became the famed vampire legends. Only sacred symbols and specific magical items could be effective against them. Vampire tales were common in some areas of Poland, in Romania, and in the Ukraine. Slavic vampires were sometimes ghosts who suffered tragic fates rather than Dracula-like figures. The Romanian leader Vlad Tepes was said to be the model for Count Dracula. Since stealing and reduced cow’s milk was often associated with malevolent magic it is thought by some scholars that stealing milk by milking the cows magically is the source of vampire legends. Others point to the prevalence in the lore of many cultures of cannibalistic spirits.

In another story of the archetypal heroes Ivan and Vasilisa they were separated by the spirit being Koschei the Deathless. But he could only be overcome by finding where he truly dwells apart from his doppelganger. This on an island buried beneath an oak tree in a wooden box, within which was a hare, within which was a duck, within which was an egg. His life was within the egg and he could only be destroyed by destroying the egg. This is one of several stories depicting this Russian motif, often found in the common art objects of the wooden dolls within dolls called Matreshka dolls.

Metaphor and riddle were told in various tales and sayings. Door lintels and window sills were thought to be places where evil spirits or spirits of illness could enter.

“Elaborate decoration and cleansing of door-lintels and windowsills was believed to keep evil influences away from a household.”

The picture shows a very beautiful and detailed wood carved design.

Agricultural protective rituals were done around field boundaries. Some Slavic sorcerers were depicted in garb reminiscent of Siberian shamans with fur, feathers, horns, and metal and bells sewn into the costume. The art of falconry was associated with sorcery – as man controlling wild beast. Cats, dogs, and magpies were familiar spirits that could be shape-sifted into by sorcerers. Werewolf legends are thought to come from ancient wolf-shamanism. Masks of the ram were used in Poland as the ram was probably there a very ancient totem. Serpents and dragons also figure prominently in Slavic lore where several multiple-headed forms appear. There is also lore associated with bears, the medvyed, who was associated with the thunder god (perhaps stemming from Aryan times). Other magical animals are bull, wolves, horses, frogs, pigeons, eagles, birds, and hawks. One sorcerer even transformed into an ant on occasion. The firebird was another magical animal and may as well relate to the Persian Simorgh. Due to the influence of Christianity, dragons and serpents were often associated with evil but birds typically have a benign influence.

The last section of the book discusses the legacy of Slavic Myth in movies, art, literature, and even Marxist poster styles and depictions of cosmonauts as mythical heroes.

Great introduction to a vast subject. Unfortunately, as in many cultures, the written word came late and much was destroyed and altered by Christianity. I find it interesting that the artistic motifs typically of folk art in Russia, Romania, and many other Slavic lands may preserve the artistic symbolic language depicted in Neolithic times among the many excavated sites in Eastern Europe, particularly along the Danube River.

Chapel of Extreme Experience: A Short History of Stroboscopic Light and the Dream Machine

Book Review: Chapel of Extreme Experience: A Short History of Stroboscopic Light and the Dream Machine by John Geiger  (Soft Skull Press 2003)

This is a really cool account of the phenomenon of ‘flicker’ and stroboscopic light as studied in consciousness psychology and therapy and in psychedelia as a means of visionary enjoyment. The Dream Machine is a homemade flicker machine devised by Ian Somerville and Bryon Gysin after Gysin had an experience in 1958 while closing his eyes as he traveled on a bus through trees amidst the setting sun. Under these conditions he saw multidimensional kaleidoscopic visions of both color and pattern that amazed him. He described it as: “the visual merges with the visionary.”

Briefly described are some early machines of the 18^th and 19^th centuries that involved flicker and imagery. Some of these are the Magic Lantern which flashed light with moving slides, early stroboscopes, the Zoetrope which used drawings inside a turning to cylinder to give an illusion of transparency and movement, and Benham’s Artificial Spectrum Top which was a flat cardboard disk on a spindle where the disk was painted half white and half black and with concentric circles. These devices were considered precursors to the motion picture. A surprising effect of Benham’s top was that it produced illusions of color apparently by confusing the retina and led to further study of the visual system. Early electrically powered flicker machines and stroboscopes followed these devices.

In 1946 Neurologist Dr. W. Grey Walter began experimenting with psychophysical responses to an electronic stroboscope. He found that strange patterns can be produced with closed eyes under certain rates of flicker. At the theta rhythm (4-7 flashes per second) emotions of annoyance and anger could be provoked. But at the alpha rhythm (8-13 flashes per sec) the results were often visual imagery. Walter noted the effects of flicker on the brain. Visual imagery, colors, and patterns were most common. In 3-4% percent of subjects there was some brain wave activity similar to epileptics and petit mal (small seizures) induced in a very few subjects. This photosensitive epilepsy was later said to be inducible in 1 out of 4000 people. Some epileptics have noted a pleasant state of well-being just before a fit. In 1953 Walter published his account of the electronics of brain activity called “The Living Brain.” He had an interest in testing flicker as a possible form of therapy for schizophrenics. The schizophrenics to which he induced flicker during experimentation seemed to have some profound experiences of a hallucinogenic nature – but flicker as therapy failed to produce any definite therapeutic results overall. Some effects were comparable – although milder – than the effects discovered in the experiments by Wilder Penfield on electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) where very intense hallucinatory and mental/psychological effects were encountered.

Colors induced by flicker are often noted to be more vivid than normal experienced colors and are often experienced as in motion, dynamic and changing. Walter theorized that flicker combined with a scanning mechanism of the brain produced the perception of movement.

“Walter further surmised that the activity of the alpha rhythm, as a scanning mechanism, is central to the understanding and transference of information from the visual projection areas of the brain to the association areas ...” Walter described it in a 1952 Discovery article as, “transforming the pattern of things seen in space into a sequence of signals in time.” Walter thought that flicker produced an interference pattern onto brain activity that confuses the brain. I think maybe a related phenomena is that of hypnagogic imagery where the brain perhaps reprocesses recent imagery while the body is falling asleep and there may be some sort of interference or other conditions that make the unusual and often moving imagery.

Next we come to the effects of flicker combined with mind-altering drugs. The experiments of John Smythies, Stanislov Grof with LSD and the writer Aldous Huxley with mescaline are recounted. Huxley used flicker with some of his experiments. Flicker was thought to enhance the effects of hallucinogenic drugs and perhaps by itself or in combination to invoke the effects of hallucinogenic chemicals already present in the brain. Huxley had advocated that these drugs can produce genuine mystical experiences but others noted also that they could mimic the effects of mental illnesses just as well. The whole notion explored – more particularly in flicker research – was that flicker, especially in combination with the drugs, could be used to access visionary experience. William S. Burroughs thought that flicker could be used with very small doses of drugs. He suggested to Allen Ginsberg to add flicker when he took LSD but Ginsberg seemed to have a rather ‘bad trip.’

Smythies and others , in working with stroboscopic light found that certain geometric imagery patterns were predominant like checkerboard, spider webs, mandalas, various crosses, grids, radial patterns, labyrinths, snowflakes, grids, and beehive patterns.

“One explanation was that the flashing light offered no clue to guide the visual system in the process of pattern recognition, so the visual system generated its own hypothesis which took the form of the illusory image or pattern.”

Other theories focused mainly on the visual system and its interface with brain functions.

Grey Walter’s theory was consistent with Smythies’ observation that there were four general types of patterns.

“... each group is similar to a scanning mechanism. You can scan with parallel lines, with a radial scan where you start in the middle and spiral outward, with a star radiating outward, or by moving as through a maze.”

Burroughs was friends with Bryon Gysin and shared books and researches. Gysin was a painter and was living at the so-called Beat Hotel in Paris near other artists of the time.  The psychedelic and consciousness revolution of the 60’s was strongly influenced by the people described in this book – the first ‘official’ explorers with newly available hallucinogenic drugs and brain-altering technologies.

Ian Somerville managed to make the Dream Machine according to Gysin’s wants by using a gramaphone turntable with a light dangled into the center of a cardboard cylinder with slits cut into it spinning on the turntable at whatever speed is chosen. Burroughs mentioned flicker and mind-altering drugs on many of his novels. Indeed his idea of ‘cutouts’, in writing as well as audio and video may have been inspired by flicker – as random and changing – words, sounds, and imagery – to possibly reveal deeper levels of

experience. This imagery as well as that from the psychedelic drugs has been likened to access to Jung’s idea of the collective unconscious. Burroughs and perhaps Gysin and some of the others as well were less hopeful of the drugs as a panacea than was Timothy Leary who was promoting them as the new way to live and totally transform society into a big love cult.

Gysin had sought to market the Dream Machine for many years but was ultimately unsuccessful although he seemed to have come close many times. He saw it as an alternative to TV. Gysin had spent many hours meditating on the imagery and apparently found it a worthwhile device for such. Having read a book about Gysin called Planet R101 – which documents his wild and experimental life living in Morocco – I can guess that  he was a deeply committed consciousness researcher. Gysin showed the Dream Machine in various ‘art Installations’ at galleries. One was called the – Chapel of Extreme Experience – which gives the book’s title. In describing the Dream Machine, author Richard Condon noted:

“The Dream Machine rearranges components of experiences into patterns which are new even to the unconscious mind and they do this by presenting to the perceptual system inputs of such extraordinary novelty that the mind/memory system hauls out its entire stock of perception memories and concept-memories and works itself dizzy trying to assemble and test different combinations of theses components in an effort to recognize or explain the totally new perceptions ... The Dream Machine presents an oscillation between consciousness and memory.”

The flicker response was noted in some films and there was even one in 1965 called – The Flicker – that was meant to induce flicker responses. Strobe lights did manage to become a part of sixties culture as well. There was an episode of a Japanimation movie – part of the Pokeman series – that apparently caused a great many reactions including seizures due to flicker effects. When I was in college I was with about 4 friends watching a horror movie after taking psilicybin “shrooms.” One guy fell forward while we were sitting there and actually went into a seizure with convulsions. He had never had a seizure before. At the time I thought it was the shrooms or another toxic component in the shrooms but now I think that the combination of the shrooms and the flicker of the TV and possibly the fear-provoking effect of the horror movie were the cause – and flicker may well have been the dominant cause.

Walter did other experiments involving flashing light and reactions to unexpected and novel stimuli. Another topic that interested him was the possible use of flicker to detect ‘psi’ phenomena. Walter, Huxley, Smythies, Gysin, and Humphry Osmond were all friends with the famed English psychic Eileen Garrett. Through his experiments Walter discovered that slight changes in brain waves could predict when a person was about to do something. He called these “expectancy waves.” He thought that this finding could have implications for things like willed psychokinesis and perhaps telepathy. Burroughs had taken yage, or ayahuasca which had reputed telepathic effects. Simiarities between mediumship and mind-altering drug experiences were explored as well. One very interesting result of the experiments was that of the seeming detection of remote stroboscopic flashes unconsciously through brain waves but not consciously. The results were apparently statistically significant.

Next comes Genesis P-Orridge, and English art-mage and musician who wrote Gysin to get permission to publish plans of the Dream Machine. P-Orridge’s band Psychic TV had made recordings into the moving Dream Machine which altered the sounds and then cut them up into a CD. After many hours with Dream Machines he stated that he thinks they could be useful in developing telepathy. P-Orridge was instrumental in founding Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth – which is where I got my own Dream Machine plans in the late 80’s. We hade made two different ones at the time and I must say they did make great ambiance although we didn’t seem to experiment enough with them with eyes closed – only occasionally. I just found the plans the other day and have acquired an old turntable so I plan to make another one soon. 

Gysin, who died in 1986 – mentioned that he had maybe “lived a life of adventure, leading nowhere.” In any case, he did leave a legacy of paintings, writings, books, and an exploratory spirit. The 1986 book Mega Brain – about –new tools and techniques for brain growth and mind expansion - by Michael Hutchison described Hutchison’s use of the Synchro-Energizer, “which utilized ‘stroboscopic goggles’ – rhythmic flashes from small light bulbs surrounding each eye – accompanied by an electronic humm heard through headphones.” Apparently, users described vivid experiences and I remember trying out at least one of the so-called “brain machines” in the early 90’s and had a few friends that used them regularly for relaxation.

A more recent researcher of stroboscopic effects was Stephen Stwertka. He called the  stroboscopically-induced patterns ‘dissipative structures’ in a 1993 article.

“Dissipative structures are patterns of order that exist solely through the dissipation of energy. They are part of the science of chaos, which holds that behind the oscillations, turbulence, and randomness – the chaos – in nature, there exists a strange manifestation of order and pattern. Dissipative structures are found in cloud patterns, in the organization of colonies of unicellular organisms, and in the rotating spirals found in chemical reactions. They display certain preferred patterns of organization, many of them the same patterns described  in the stroboscopic studies – circles, vortices, spirals, and grids – suggesting what Stwertka described as “an almost universal expression of spatial self-organization and order.”

Stwertka also related these dissipative structures to the activity of neurons. He thinks they collectively organize, synchronize, and otherwise cohere – possibly instantaneously across different areas of the brain. Apparently, color, shape, and movement are interpreted in three different areas of the brain. I can see this tying in with some of the quantum matrix hologram ideas as well in a deeper sense.

Well, this was really a cool book about an interesting subject and perhaps another cool techno-art meditation to rediscover.

The Druid Way

Book Review: The Druid Way  by Phillip Carr-Gomm (Element Books 1993)

This was a rather contemplative book by one time chief of the UK based Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. He is also a psychologist. He studied under his Druid teacher, Nuinn, from the age of 15. This book is not a systematized explanation of Druid teachings at all as one might expect from the title, but a book about the quest for knowledge by making oneself available to communication from ancestors and place by walking the ancient pathways between sacred sites. I had opportunity to ask an Arch Druid of the US-based ADF Druid organization about the book and he noted that it was disappointing. I definitely disagree. Perhaps the title was a bit misleading. I thought the book itself is a good exploration of what modern forms of questing for visionary knowledge and experience might be.

The author is part of a modern Druid group in the UK that practices rites together, occasionally at some of the sacred Celtic sites. It seems that there are two sources of magickal connection always available to us. These would be the magick of place and the magick of ancestors. We are always connected to the place we are and the places we frequent. We are always connected to our ancestors. In the author’s case he is accessing both of these in his quest for knowledge and vision. Accessing the magick of place can best be done by being there for long periods. Accessing the magick of ancestors can also potently be done by being in the places frequented by them and exploring their works. I have done this sort of thing here in the US in Native American sites with meaningful experiences. Having a small amount of Native American ancestry may or may not have been a factor. Another source of magickal connection that is likely available to us is that of the connections we have to our previous incarnations and those relationships to people and place. Of course, these are less directly knowable.

The author provides his account of walking journeys over a few month’s time in south-eastern England near the sea that include several ancient sites from the Megalithic period, many even before the arrival of the Celts. Here he walks along  “the old track” as a meditation as some older writers have fancied. His journey was conceived during a Winter Solstice rite on the Lewes Tump. From here he walked along the South Downs Way and on to Alfriston and the Wilmington Giant at Avronelle and returned along the same path.

“The Druid tradition is first and foremost a tradition of the land. It is an earth-religion. It requires a listening to the earth. But it is also a wisdom tradition, and as such carries a heritage of written material.”

Symbolically, he begins his journey by passing through what he identifies as a magical gate made by a yew tree and a beech tree, both sacred to Druids. Hew notes the tradition of planting yews in graveyards – the exoteric explanation that because they are poisonous they keep animals away from the cemetery. The esoteric explanation is that  the yew is a tree of life and death, of eternity (they can live fro 3000 years), and the main sacred tree of Irish Druids as the oak was to English Druids. In the eastern US it seems that a similar-looking tree, the juniper often called Eastern Red Cedar has taken the place of yews as a cemetery tree. This is definitely so in West Virginia where many folk are of Irish and Scottish descent.

His first visionary experience is of a young woman who says, “I am Niwalen, my name means the White Track. I am the goddess of the road. I am the spirit of the journey.” He sees her later standing with a blackbird on her shoulder. The blackbird was known as the bird of the Druids. Another name for Niwalen is Olwen, as goddess of the track. The author scrys for vision by walking the ancient trail and also by meditating and lying down on the ancient mounds. He notes a visionary experience where he presumably falls asleep on a mound and has a vivid dream conversation with his deceased teacher Nuinn as they observe together the goings on of a long past culture in the area. The key thought revealed here was that: “The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children.”

“If someone asks what Druid practice consists of, one way of answering is as follows: it involves working with the chalice and the wand or sword. The chalice is the magic circle, the circle of stones, or the grove of trees. The sword, or wand, is the Old Straight Track, the path, the journey. Our lives consist of rest and motion, alternately, of being and doing as alternate states. In the Sacred Grove we find rest, we are calm, we are seated. We work our magic, we open ourselves to the breath of Awen, of inspiration. We find support in letting go of our obsession to do and to have. With the wand, the lance, the spear, the dagger, the sword, we move into the realm of Doing – we act in the world – we ‘go forth’, we journey.”

The author sees this journey as the notion of ‘walking the old tracks.’ Here the outer journey becomes a metaphor for the inner journey. This is akin to vision questing or hero-questing and can help in integrating one psychologically. He contemplates the psychological meaning of dragons and how we relate to our inner monsters – fears, desires, greed, and lust for power. We can fight the dragon which may lead to repression. We can flee from it which may lead to life long fear and regret. We can befriend the dragon or at least live in some sort of harmony with it so that dysfunction is limited in both us and the dragon-force. As the author point outs, in many stories the dragon represents the wild energy of the land, of nature in all its biological urgency.

He gives a chapter comparing Druidism and Wicca, as a newer manifestation of the Old Religion associated with Witchcraft. Here he notes also various cross-influences of Wicca, Druidism, and various magical orders such as the Rosicrucians and the Golden Dawn, as well as some of the reformed Druid groups that have popped up through the centuries.

In a section about ordeals the author notes:

“Our major initiations do not take place in temples or even stone circles. For most of us in the west they take place in bed. Our most powerful initiations are the great Rites of Passage – being born, dying, making love for he first time ...”

He visits an old church along the Cuckmere River that was likely built on an old Celtic Nemeton, or Sacred Grove. At Avronelle he visits the Giant of Wilmington, the Long Man, the great effigy that is the 2^nd largest in the world. He contemplates its position and the reasons why he is without phallus quite unlike the Cerne Abbas Giant. He compares the history and lore of the two giants. The author does manage to tie in the healing potential of ancient fertility rites to modern psychological dysfunctions perpetrated by the demands and persecutions of the Church. He talks about the ‘goddess who has been denied.’ He talks about our seeming desire to destroy the earth by our greed of progress. He apparently experiences much of this in vision where his teacher is talking to him. Nuinn mentions that it is not only significant that he has no phallus but also that he has no mate. He contemplates the loss of the phallus as possibly a mythical wounding of sorts. Such mythical wounding is common in myth, particularly in shamanic cultures. The wounded Fisher King in Arthurian lore is one such story. He said he was awoken when his wife found him lying there in the grass by the road – so I guess it was profound experience for him.

Whilst falling asleep in a presumed hypnagogic state (where visions and aha! experiences are known to occur) the author is given a technique by the Long Man himself for accessing the Otherworld. The giant holds two staves extending from his head to the ground that even look as if he is guarding a gateway defined by the staves. The Long Man tells him to stare at both staves. When the author does this he has a short vision then falls asleep. When he wakes he sees that he has written a note to himself to go back and see the giant as there is something he missed. He does so at the Spring Equinox. Due to the angle of the morning sun he notices that the giant looks more like a woman and may be a goddess of the land. He sees breasts and a depression for the vulva and this is his revelation.

He goes along his journey noting other sacred spots, local history both ancient and recent, old word and place-name etymologies, and notions and stories of myth and Druidism. He tells a sad story of the accidental death of a child of a dear friend and how the Druid folk ritualize the passing as a way to help deal with grief and promote healing.

He tells the story of Rhiannon form the Mabinogion where she is falsely accused of killing her newborn child and must do a penance which lasts several years. For her penance she had to recount the story of her killing her son to each visitor while bringing them to the court on her back. The author notes that Rhiannon is doubly wounded – by false allegation and penance and by the loss of her child. He also notes that the story indicates that we can never truly be separated from those we love. Rhiannon was a Queen of the Otherworld who had crossed over to live among humans and her son was really taken by a king of that realm who later returned him seeing that he was the son of a human. The author also notes the Otherworld Journey as part of the “Druid Way,” where one is trained to explore the inner realms – maybe through incubatory sleep and dreaming techniques, fasting, vision questing, or whatever.

His last visionary experience is a contemplation of death and the meaning of being re-integrated back into the land and then reconfigured into a new life – in the sense that the Celtic tradition accepts reincarnation as likely.

“THIS STORY OF A JOURNEY from Lewes to Wilmington and back is partly an account of the evocatory power of Place. Becoming aware of, and then working with the magic and presence of Place is probably one of the most direct and immediate ways of opening ourselves to the meaning and value of Druidry today.”

He notes entering the magic of Place as a way to integrate the inner and the outer worlds. He also notes the value of appreciating and honoring Time. One can do this, he implies, by accepting that we are temporary, that we are subject to the stages of life,  death, and to being recycled into the next life.

“We are given a body through the act of our parents mating – and here we see the connection between sex and death and initiation. Our major initiations are given to us as we take on or let go of our bodies. Our bodies are given to us through the sexual act. Therefore the sexual act is sacred, since it provides the vehicle for our initiations and our learning in this world.”

Nice book – well worth reading with both interesting info and practical psychology.

The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water

Book Review: The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water 

by Charles Fishman  (Free Pres 2011)

This is an interesting and informative book and tackles issues that will face us more and more as time goes on. It is about water and more specifically our relationship with water as a society. He makes the important observation that water is nearly always a local issue:

“There is no global water crisis, because all water problems are local, or regional, and their solutions must be local and regional. There is no global water crisis, there are a thousand water crises, each distinct.”

Here is a quote about the dual nature of water:

“Water’s personality, in fact, is layered with polarity, both inherently and in the ways we approach and manage water.

Water is transparent, and also reflects light.

Water is soft and soothing, and also hard as concrete.

Water is comforting, and also threatening; gentle and fierce.

Water is the source of life, and also often a source of death.

Water is all-important, indispensable, but almost always free, or essentially free.

Water is the most basic necessity to human life, and also a symbol of luxury and indulgence.”

Water issues affect people profoundly all over the world. Unexpected long-term droughts have depleted reservoirs in various places in the world that had been reliable for centuries. In some place water has to be collected and carried for home use. This occurs in many places in India due to poor and neglected infrastructure. Recycling water and water conservation and management is needed in several places and has served to change how we use water and has also saved people, towns, and businesses much money. Indeed, businesses are latching onto the real financial value of water management.

Water is cleanable. The water cycle does this given enough time. We can also do it through reverse osmosis and in other ways. Water has unique qualities and we ourselves are mostly water and we need much of it every day. All the water we use has been recycled through natural systems many times over. This book is full of all sorts of statistics about water. Various case histories about water, water problems, and water solutions are given in readable formats. Reused water, gray water, or more specifically, non-potable water is often conveyed in purple pipes so that people know it is non-potable. Use of this recycled water for such things as watering lawns and washing cars has conserved cleaner water for drinking. Some cities have managed to implement these purple pipe systems.

The author describes the IBM plant in Vermont where 2 million gallons of ultra purified water a day are used in the manufacture computer circuits so tiny that their electron pathways can’t even be seen with microscopes. The ultra-pure water is used to wash away the chemical solutions that make the connections. This ultra pure water (UPW) is said to be 10 million times cleaner than tap water whatever that means. It contains nothing but water molecules. Apparently, this UPW tastes terrible. It is said to be very bitter. Even bottled water which is often tap water that has gone through sophisticated reverse osmosis filters is clean enough that minerals are added to it for taste. IBM also learned to save vast amounts of money by recycling water as well as using hot water and cold water wisely. They now even have a water management division.

The next case history is that of the city of Las Vegas, where extravagant water features like giant fountains, giant aquariums that house dolphins and other sea life, and massive golf courses that grow grass in the desert are everywhere. Las Vegas is one of the driest areas on earth. Yet in the last few decades due to drawing down of the reservoir of Lake Mead it has had to change its water usage patterns. The author documents the efforts of Patricia Mulroy in managing Las Vegas’s water usage. Due to these changes the city grew by ¾ of a million people in 10 years and used the same amount of water as before. The use of recycled water and purified wastewater for non-potable uses was a big factor. Designing for the environment was another factor as golf courses and the city reduced the amount of grassy areas that needed massive water to exist. Utilizing desert landscaping instead of grass saved lots of water. At one time grass growing (and other outdoor water use) were using 70% of the potable water of Las Vegas! Now Las Vegas also returns treated wastewater to Lake Mead – about 40% of what it draws out.

Next he compares the still unresolved issue of the water rights of the city of Atlanta that has also grown drastically by a million residents in a decade. The water source there is Lake Lanier which has suffered due to drought in some years. This lake feeds the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola rivers that run down through Alabama and Florida. The battle is over how much water the Atlanta metro area has the right to use.

Water problems abound in many localities but the author is optimistic that these issues can be resolved with proper planning and implementation of sensible management practices. Another issue in several places is the need for infrastructure upgrades. In short, he says, people need to re-evaluate their relationship to water. They need to learn to use it wisely and not waste it and be willing to pay more for both delivery and maintenance of water systems.

Next he goes through the re-establishment of water delivery service in Galveston, Texas after Hurricane Ike in September 2008. He also documents the return of wastewater treatment there. Interesting to see all that is required. Apparently the city of Memphis, Tennessee actually pumped all of its untreated sewage directly into the Mississippi River until 1975 when the Clean Water Act was passed. He also documents Jackson Mississippi where freezing caused 154 water line breaks and basically shut the city down for weeks.

Basically, we can’t really function as a modern society without our water services.

Next is the story of a 12-year drought called the Big Dry in Australia. There the Murray River Basin provides water for much of the country and the agricultural belt which grows lots of rice. This drought affected many towns, farms, and industries which have been forced to cope by conserving, recycling, and paying more for things like seawater desalinization plants. The town of Toowoomba had nearly run out of water and was faced with water managers that wanted to recycle wastewater, purify it and put it back in the tap. This is done in several places including here in the states where it is mixed with groundwater, being pumped into an aquifer before it hits the pipes. The psychological factor was very big and even though virtually all organic pollutants would be gone – to most people virtually all is less than all so the yuck factor prevented it when they voted. They ended up building a huge and expensive pipeline to bring in water from far away.

Fortunately, mere months after this book was published there were massive rains in Australia that resulted in actual flooding so the drought situation was reduced. But really all water is reused water, though recycled through nature. Even the space station has an on-board water recycling station that converts pee and even sweat back into drinking water!

Then we come to India where up until in the 1980’s in some cities there was 24/7 water availability. But due to the culture of water management there and government corruption and water and infrastructure mismanagement some of the same places now get water only every other day for an hour. Due to this many poor urban people have to wait sometimes hours twice a day in order to dip water out of tankers that deliver it to distribution points. Due to this they often cannot hold jobs or attend school. Many wealthier folk in India’s thriving urban economies have installed pumping systems to suck in water to holding tanks during the hour or two a day that it may be on. This has created further problems with pressure and often makes things much worse. In one situation the water from leaking sewer pipes that were run right along the water line was sucked into leaking water pipes due to the vacuum on it caused by all the home pumps. This caused an outbreak of E-coli that killed several people. Apparently the tap water in these areas always smells like sewage. Water loss due to leaking pipes is apparently quite a bit in most non-modern water systems here in the US and around the world. Water infrastructure upgrade is a big issue. Another issue in India is rural people having to carry water long distance several times a day due again to lack of availability due to lack of wells drilled and lack of infrastructure rather than lack of water. Traditionally, it is women who carry water and as a result many of these women lack an education. Some educated people who have made money in the corporate world are returning to their original areas to help these people. The author does do a water walk with the women and finds that he can handle scarcely handle half of the water they can and that he spills much more of it than they as they have developed a special way of gyroscopically walking with their hips so as not to spill it. In cities like Delhi over half of the water in the pipes leaks out. The rivers in India, although worshipped as pure and healing goddesses are extremely polluted, in some places totally black with sewage. Other pollution problems in Indian cities have been severely reduced – for instance the converting of urban transportation from gasoline to natural gas – even the small motorized rickshaws. This has reduced smog by a massive factor in some very populated cities. Some cities with different mindsets and less corruption have managed to implement water systems.

Water management requires water monitoring equipment such as meters. In some areas where water is abundant there is no charge for massive water use. People in the US are used to abundant water and tend to use massive amounts compared to folks in areas where water is scarce. I know some about this myself as I have lived off of both low-yield wells and a 1700 gallon cistern which got filled only every 5 or 6 weeks. We have also spent a few six month long periods with no running water. It is not so hard to adapt but it does take some getting used to. As a result our water-use habits have always been rather conservative but apparently not so for other families as the water usage estimates indicate. The author indicates that many of us are rather spoiled about water – complaining loudly if our water bill goes up $5 a month as if we think water should be free. But he indicates that it is not just the water that is being paid for but the delivery, monitoring, and maintenance and upgrade of the water system.

The author also notes the propensity to buy and consume bottled water that is not regulated and in most cases is apparently no better than tap water and in fact filtered tap water may be a better choice. Oddly, people are perfectly willing to fork over hundreds – maybe even a thousand dollars a year for bottled water and unwilling to pay a higher water bill. We occasionally buy bottled water – last time was when we camped where water quality was unknown. But now one can even buy cheap Brita type filters to carry anywhere already attached to a cup.

The author notes: “Most water problems are, in fact, solvable.”  This is mainly in regards to reducing the massive waste of outdated leaking pipes but also other problems. One current problem needing more attention is that of micropollutants. Since we can now measure the presence of various substances in greater detail at the parts per trillion level we know that there are many man-made chemicals in our water – literally hundreds – and the amounts will only increase as times goes on. There is technology to treat the water but it is as of yet still expensive. Massive amounts of household chemicals, plastics, oil and gas wastewater, mine drainage, even antibiotics and medicines and caffeine are in our waters.

“... we have the technology to clean water to any level we want and within water sheds to deliver that water where it needs to be.”

“Now is the moment to figure out the impact of what we have been unintentionally putting into water, and develop inexpensive techniques for removing the micropollutants before we return the water to its source or reuse it ourselves. Micropollutants, like most water problems, will only get worse, more difficult and more expensive to deal with, as time goes on.”

This is a great book to ponder and good to read for anyone concerned about the future of water and how we relate to water. It is written in an engaging style that reads well. It is mostly an optimistic assessment but with the caveats that there will be cost and inconveniences. The author does think that our tap water is safe for the most part – since it is regularly tested (as well water and other water sources should also be) and found to be safe. If not, it can be treated. Of course, if we suspect bad water we can always filter it ourselves and perhaps even one day we will be able to filter out micropollutants as well. Also, as one of my co-workers noted it seems a bit ironic that a guy with the late name of Fishman wrote a book about water!

The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool

Book Review: The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool  by Rosemary Sutliff  (Puffin Books 1988, orig. 1967)

I found these stories to be quite enjoyable. They are magical tales of the Fianna of Ireland and their famous leader Finn Mac Cool. There are tales of magic, valor, and as well the tragedy typical of Celtic literature. Rosemary Sutcliff notes in the introduction some contrast between the stories of CuChulain and the Red Branch and the stories of Finn Mac Cool and the Fianna. The Red Branch heroes and tales were from an earlier date (maybe 150 BC), from the northern parts of Ireland, and the Danaan were perhaps more godlike. The Fianna stories were later (maybe 300 AD or later), from the southern part of Ireland, and the Danaan seem to be more Faerie-like.

As a boy Finn was in hiding from the slayers of his father who had come to slay him. He met a Druid named Finegas who had tried for seven years to catch the ‘Salmon of Knowledge” from the Boyne River. The Salmon called Fintan ate the nuts of a magic Hazel tree that fell into the river. Finn Mac Cool finds the Druid and asks to be his pupil. After this the Druid catches the Salmon quite easily. He gives it to Finn to cook but bids him not to eat one drop but Finn burns his thumb on the spit and puts it in his mouth to cool it and thus receives the knowledge bestowed by the Salmon. The Druid now realizes that it was Finn that the Salmon was destined for and so bids him eat it and be on his way for he is now full of ‘knowledge.’ Later in several of the stories Finn would put his thumb between his teeth in order to learn secret things such as the whereabouts of those they were searching for. The unplanned burning of the thumb in a cooking pot is echoed in several Celtic myths such as those of Gwion and Cerridwen and also of Taliesin the bard. Finn also gained the power of saving life by giving water from his cupped hands. The saving ‘water of life’ appears in many European stories – much in Slavic lore as well.

In several of the stories there is the placing of geis, or a specific personal taboo on various characters, usually those associated with magical abilities. These taboos are often linked to the final destinies of the characters and sometimes end in tragedy related to the breaking of the geis but this is not always the case as sometimes (as in the case of CuChulain and his son) the tragedy was precipitated by keeping the geis. Cuchulain’s death came about when an old hag (an aspect of the Morrigan) offers him dog meat and since he had a geis not to eat dog meat and another geis not to refuse food from a woman he was doomed to his fate. 

Finn’s first charge was to overcome a monster called Aillen of the Flaming Breath who on every Samhain at midnight would come and play his silver harp and lure all to sleep and then would proceed to burn the Royal Fortress of Tara so that it would have to be rebuilt. Finn was able to stay awake with the aid of a spear given to him by one whose life was saved by Finn’s father. It was forged by Lein, the Smith of the Gods, who beat into it the fire of the sun and the potency of the moon. It was the bloodlust in it kept by his forehead that was said to keep him awake. In the morning he came back with the head of the beast on his spear point and the thatch remained on Tara. For this deed the king Cormac Mac Art set him as captain of the Fianna of Erin, the roving paramilitary band that protected the kingdom. This he regained from Goll MacMorna, an old enemy of his father who before was captain of the Fianna. Nonetheless Goll remained faithful to Finn as a leader of Clan Morna.

The Fianna were hunters and sharpened their skills in the hunt with the aid of hounds. In magical terms – setting out on a hunt seems to be a metaphor for a ‘quest.’ Many a story of multiple twists and turns begins with the hunt. Indeed Finn hunts a hind who ends up being his future wife Saba in a shape shifted form. She is also of the Fey and after the hounds catch her and befriend her she becomes Finn’s wife as she had hoped. They have a wonderful marriage until she is magically transferred back into a deer and is never seen again. This is the first of several tragedies and it is said that Finn knew well the risks of wedding one of the Fey. She was pursued and finally captured by a Dark Druid but not before she bore a human son, Oisen (Little Fawn) who was found by the hounds and eventually became part of the Fianna. He was also a great minstrel and harper, being part Fey. It is unknown what became of Saba.

The stories are told of how Finn meets up with and gets his two great and magical hounds, Bran and Skolawn. In a few stories the Finn and the Fianna battle those from a Lochlan kingdom on the east coast of Britain – either Viking or possibly earlier Norwegian settlers. Other stories are told about how Finn’s best warriors come to join him, such as Dearmid O’Dyna who was fostered by the Danaan deity Angus Og (typically the Celtic god of love).

Finn experiences being enchanted into great old age by a daughter of the Danaan blacksmith Cullen. The other daughter eventually removes the spell but yet seeks to entrap him with a second drink from the golden cup whereby he refuses and must keep his silver hair for the rest of his days.

In the story of the ‘Giolla Dacker and His Horse’ the Fianna are even magically led into the service of a Fey prince in order to overcome his evil brother. This story had some nice humorous elements.

The story of the “Hostel of the Quicken Trees” is about a great battle where the Fianna fight an army of Lochlan kings, warrriors, and mages who hold them hostage with magic.

Dearmid O’Dyna and others are heroic in this effort as is Osca, the grandson of Finn Mac Cool.

Next ensues the off-and-on tragedy of Dearmid and Grania. Finn seeks as a wife the daughter of the High King Cormac Mac Art whose name is Grania. She accepts but before the wedding she falls in love with Dearmid O’Dyna and puts a geis on him to take her away while Finn and several of his men were drugged to sleep. Here the power of the geis is seen as Dearmid asks counsel from those who were not drugged such as Finn’s son Oisen and his grandson Osca. They and the others say that foremost he must not break the geis for to do so is a greater dishonor than even raising the wrath of his captain Finn Mac Cool. So off they went and the chase ensued with Finn deep in seeking Dearmid’s head in vengeance. Dearmid is aided by the magic of his foster-father Angus Og and so escapes to the point where a peace deal is made and Dearmid is given a fitting plot of land and cattle far away from the haunts of the Fianna.

The story of ‘Niamh of the Golden Hair’ recounts the taking of Oisen into the Land of Youth, the Land of the Ever Young, Tir-Na-nOg to be the husband of the beautiful Niamh. He promises to visit in the future.

Another geis from his childhood finally does Dearmid O’Dyna in as he hunts a wild boar

who ends up being his murdered step-brother long ago transformed into a magical black boar by his father the steward of Angus Og, the one who fostered Dearmid. Dearmid and the slain boy shared the same mother and through the steward’s curse which he administered with the aid of a hazel wand – they would also share the same death. After this Angus Og lays a geis on Dearmid that he never hunt the wild boar. In the course of Finn and his men being finally invited to visit and hunt with Dearmid – it is the wild boar that appears and pride and frenzy (and the doom of the curse) overtake Dearmid so that he and the boar are slain as is foreshadowed. Finn has the chance to save him with the water of life in his cupped hands but refuses several times in his bitterness of the feud between them and though he finally concedes it is too late. Indeed in Finn’s older days and in the bitterness of his feud with Dearmid we see the pride and stubborn nature and even spoiled nature of the hero. We see that the hero is human and can be shallow at times. Strangely enough, a time after Dearmid’s death Grania does become wife to Finn Mac Cool – though after much patience on his part.

The end of Finn and the Fianna come finally at the Battle of Gavra after the new High King Cairbri of the Liffey decides that the Fianna are too powerful and independent as a force and devises well to split them up with old feuds, and battle with them to their end.

They all of course die the deaths of hero’s. Osca manages to slay Cairbri but he is also slain as are all the Fiana and so they are no more.

Alas there is the peculiar story of the ‘Return of Oisen.’ He returns from the Land of Youth on a horse which he was instructed never to dismount. Unfortunately he stops to help some farmers remove a great stone and falls off of his horse doing so. He immediately becomes an aged man. For this he must remain in the human realm and so yet another tragedy ensues. Here he is said to meet Priest Patrick and various Christian monks who were not there when he left. He enquires about Finn Mac Cool and the Fianna but all say that it has been 300 years since their time. Oisen tells his story to Priest Patrick, including his great happiness in Tir-Na nOg and is lost to his grief. It was said that the harp songs of Oisen were still played and known at that time.

This is really an easy to read version of a great Celtic literature cycle that evokes the emotions of the best of the genre of sagas.  I just hope I didn’t give away too much.

THe Shamanic Way of the Bee: Ancient Wisdom and Healing Practices of the Bee Masters

Book Review: The Shamanic Way of the Bee: Ancient Wisdom and Healing Practices of the Bee Masters by Simon Buxton (Destiny Books 2004)

This is a mind-blowing book. The anthropologist that wrote the forward compares this book to the works of Carlos Castaneda who wrote as a student/initiate under his teacher Don Juan Matus. The book does have quite a few similarities as it is also an account of initiatory wonders – some a bit out there as to seem enhanced in the literary sense. Nonetheless it makes for great reading and there is quite a lot of unusual information and esoteric symbolatry here that is well worth contemplating. The notion that there is somehow a continuous lineage of transmissions of bee craft knowledge woven into not only old European pagan traditions but traditions the world over – is a bit hard to accept at first bite – but certainly there is something of interest to this magickal/shamanic relationship and certainly of a lineage of sorts. How much is new and how much is old is not known but since the relationship between man and bees goes way back and folk traditions are notoriously stubborn to be replaced and forgotten, it does seem plausible to me that some of these ideas may go way back in time.

Much of the book is about the author’s own transformational and initiatory journey under the tutelage of a Welsh man known as the Bee Master. He stumbled upon him quite by accident but before this as a child he had some earlier connection with beekeeping while living in Austria as a child. There he befriended an old professor who his parents had asked to teach him German. The professor had traveled the world and studied among various cultures who also kept bee hives. The boy got very ill with viral encephalitis and had a dream about being protected and guided to safety by bees. He left Vienna when he was eight and never saw the old man again.

The author says that the Bee shaman tradition is known as the Path of Pollen. He tells of his rather mystical first meeting with Bridge, the Welsh Bee Master and his blind apprentice Gwyn Ei Fyd. When he entered through a gate he saw the Bee Master with bees from a distance. He was stung twice, once on the palm of the hand and again at the top of his head. The Bee Master called the top of his head his ‘dream wheel’ and one of his magic circles, the part that enters the world first. This was a sign that the bees liked him according to Bridge and the beginning of his apprenticeship with the Bee Master.

There is some great bee lore in this book. Also of note are the protective and healing properties of bee products such as honey. Several researchers have noted that beekeepers rarely get cancer and legend suggests that they often have long lives.

Hives consist of the three types of bee – drones, workers, and queen. Drones are males that stay in the hive most of the time, have no sting, and mate with the queen. Workers are females that collect pollen, nectar, and propolis, make wax to form the hive and honey to feed the hive. The queen produces all the offspring. She lives six or seven times longer than the rest, never leaves the hive except for once to mate (also if there is birthed another queen and the hive splits up), and she only sees her sons and daughters. She also mates with a drone that is technically her brother.

Bridge taught him the art of beekeeping with formalities akin to a priesthood and so was his apprenticeship similar to the transfer of knowledge from guru to chela. Indeed the Path of Pollen is akin to a Great Yoga. The author gives several of his master’s lessons here typically prefaced with the words – The Bee Master knows -.

“His first lesson to me was brief and precise: “The Bee Master knows that no one species of animal has inspired so many people in so many ways as the humble honeybee. No creature has had more literature devoted to it; a continuous honey flow, from Aristotle and Virgil down to our present day. For thousands of years, men and women have worked with the bee with varying degrees of success, and during this long period we have come to treat this small creature with considerable respect, so much so that the bee is often used to represent purity, integrity, industry, and a host of other virtues.”

Bridge also noted that in Old Europe the two creatures most depicted were the serpent and the bee – both live in dark places, carry venom, and emerge from their holes at certain times of the year. The bee typically represents the goodness of living and may be related to the notion of – to be – and to the Greek word bios – for life.

Apparently, Bridge also traveled the world with his bee teacher and learned the bee crafts of other tribes and societies. The author was encouraged to talk to the bees, particularly telling them his knowledge and realizations. Asking the bees for knowledge is also a technique. This idea can be summed up in the old adage: “Ask the wild bee what the Druids knew.” This is all discussed under the topic of the Celtic fascination with betwixt and between times where time and life is momentarily suspended between to poles of change. Here there is also the notion of times between in-breath and out-breath as being strangely effective (used extensively in yoga/tantra/meditative traditions).

On several occasions in the book the author notes Bridge’s use of psychotropic plants – in the form of incense, meads, and pastes. Burning of the resin called bee propolis as an incense is one form. It would seem that the employment of entheogens is a part of this tradition – as plant communication and animal communication are both well part of shamanism. Once he mentions having entheogenic smoke blown into his ears which is apparently a shamanic technique aimed at aiding one to hear the deeper worlds.

There is an interesting section about mead – a wine made from honey – older than the wheel. Bridge referred to it as “druid fluid.” A similar drink called metheglin, a derivation of ‘medicine’ is also mentioned which he identifies with the Greek ‘ambrosia.’ Mead was very likely the precursor to the wine cult arising around Dionysus as honey and beecraft were practiced, venerated, and mytholigized before the winecraft in Minoan Crete.

The use of bee venom as medicine is mentioned. This is used today by some far out health advocates but venom has a long tradition as a medicine in small quantities from Hippocrates to many ancient peoples. There is a comparison to Chinese acupuncture and indeed it is said here that some very old accupuncturists in Chinese still dip their needles in bee venom. But here is the notion that the ‘sacramental venom” can aid one in traveling to ‘other worlds.’ Buxton now agrees to go through an initiation of a powerful sort. First he was advised to loosen his inhibitions by playing a fool in the notion of ‘the Theatre of Ambiguous Behavior.’ This refers to indefinite and doubtful behavior of a random and unrehearsed sort. Things like dancing, spinning, and acting like an animal were involved. I can attest to the effectiveness of these methods in loosening one up to precurse a trance state. Bridge begins by using the “tanging quoit.” a round copper drum looking like a frying pan played with two sticks in one hand. This is used in some traditions to subdue bees but many disregard it. He used this with low vibration chanting with occasional whistles and clicks. The tanging also helps to put the shaman in a receptive state. After doing this for some time in a dark room he was next successively stung on various points of his body (typically chakra areas) until he passed out. Awakening he experiences women (or bees) licking his now naked body in some nurturing rite and sees Bridge’s eyes as the eyes of a bee. He finally becomes sick and vomits then passes out again and revives in a very small space with hexagonal cells like a beehive. He leaves it to the reader to interpret whether this was some kind of staged setup or a vision of his own consciousness – but I suspect the latter. Essentially he becomes a drone. He experiences mating with the queen as she goes from the hive and then dying as the drone would and then reappearing in human form. Following this there is a sort of psychosis where he confuses various levels of consciousness. Apparently he stayed in a small basket made like a hexagonal hive cell for days or weeks in much dreamless sleep mixed with nightmarish visions. Then the Bee Master brought him bee pollen as food calling it ‘golden coins.’ He noted that it possessed the five tastes of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and salty. Bridge notes its effectiveness as a cure-all. He mentions the flower as the lover of the bee – presumably the female worker bee drawing sustenance from the sexual organs of the flower by sucking them out. So he calls it Vitamin – P = P for Pan, the goat god associated with raw sexuality – though in this tradition he seems to be more regarded as the wild stag god.

While still in his hexagonal cell hermitage he gets his first visit from a woman known as the Bee Mistress who first teaches him the mystery of the hexagramma mysticum where the magic of the hexagon/hexagram as a shape of the golden mean, or golden ratio is revealed. It is the number six as a number of equilibrium. She suggests it as favoring “the harmonious growth and development of all living things.” This also seems prevalent in the six-sided representation of a carbon atom. She also compares it to the six-sided structure of quartz crystals. Next she reveals the ‘secret glyph of the tradition’ as the lemniscus infinitorum, the figure-eight infinity symbol. She notes that it consists of a clockwise circle and a counterclockwise circle and so encompasses both the so called right-hand path and the corresponding left-hand path. The light twin and dark twin are also inferred. It is the dance of the bee. It is sexual union.

“It also indicates the path that internal energy may be induced to follow within the body to induce the flight of the bee, the dance of the serpent, and, within women, the flowing of nectars woven with another person or object – a star or a planet, for instance. It is the circuit of force. It is also the symbol of the joining of two cultures – human and bee – and the symbiotic relationship that can exist between them.”

She also notes that it is the pathway of communication, of asking and telling – between human and bee. And so after his pollen fast he emerges from the cell after 23 days, the time it takes a drone to emerge from his cell.

Next he moves on to dream work. The Aesklepian tradition of dream incubation is mentioned and it is known that the Romans probably brought the notion to the Celts although the Celts may have had similar traditions. Bridge mentions the use of a hammock as a good way to incubate dreams, presumably one that can well wrap you up in it. (which Bridge does by demonstrating spinning it into a cocoon.) Apparently the honeycomb cell replica was also used for dream incubation. Apparently the Methodist Minister Rev. Langstroth received in a dream how to construct the self-spacing removable frame beehive still in use today and for that he is referred to as the father of modern beekeeping.

In accordance with activating both sides of the brain and balancing the left and right paths of the lemniscus infinitorum, Buxton, or Twig, as his initiated name seems to be, now embarks on a practice of developing his ambidextrous, or bi-dextrous abilities and also to practice writing right to left. He mentions that after having his right arm tied behind his back for a week his left arm became dominant. He also mentions experiments with the study of time and some rather hard to swallow notions of stopping the hands on a clock for extended periods through will power.

Next he is introduced to the Bee Mistress and her six apprentices known as the Melissae. Bridge notes that in bee society men are mere drones with no sting. The Bee Mistress is called the Mother Bee, after the goddess Demeter, and also the Queen of Synchronicity. The Melissae he calls the Sisterhood of the Hive and notes they were associated with a long oracular tradition including that of Delphi. In myth the first melissae, or bee, was said to care for the baby Zeus, feeding him honey, while he was secretly hidden away from his father Kronos. Bridge also notes the bee as goddess of intoxication and sexual passion – as being the bridge between sexual reproduction of flowers. Bees were also considered psychopomps – carrying the souls of the dead to other worlds. He meets them in the orchard among the hives and learns of traditions of singing certain songs to the bees and the Baltic and Eastern European (and Africa) practice painting the hives with symbols and depictions of family history events.

The Bee Mistress lectures him about sexual alchemy and the role of women in the Path of Pollen. She says that women are the honey-gatherers of the mind. She divides the melissae (and presumably women) into two types of varying degrees – the maternal and the magnetic. The difference is the way they imbibe from the flowers and dance their journey to their hive mates. Honey is a pure form of bee vomit and correspondingly there is are nektars (k added as per the tradition) produced from the body of the Melissae that involve some sort of internal alchemy of glands and fluids. She says there are ten different nektars and the tenth can be fatally toxic to those unprepared. She calls the Melissae – the ones who flow – the flow-ers. The nektars are urine, menstual blood, ungents, treacles, dews, juices, emanations, and rays, and the unnamed inneffable tenth nektar. Incidentally, the priestesses of Eleusis were called Melissae and the temple the hive. They are also associated with the Fates and the Norns or Wyrd Sisters of northern traditions. He notes that there are three different sisterhoods within the main Sisterhood – those of the Spinners, the Wise Maidens , and the Fays. The Spinners are associated with oracles and divination. The Wise Maidens are focused on secret hive songs, storytelling, and medicine. The Fay are associated with magic, fertility, shape-shifting, flight, and sexuality. Then two of the senior melissae meet with him – one each representing maternity (the pythia) and magnetism – the one he engages with in a shamanic fluid sharing infinity dance sexual rite. Apparently this was a rite to determine his “type” which from the vague dialogue I assume was found to be “emissary.” There is no further explanation.

Next the author partakes on making a magical tool of the male Path of Pollen practitioner called the Ancestral Rick (as the female makes the Ancestral Bundle). Here it is revealed that this rick represents the tail of the first Bee Master, a sorcerer who shape-shifted into a stag. The stag is sacred in the tradition as Pan, the horned god and the protector of bees. Apparently the bee and the stag were depicted on opposite sides of coins in the Anatolian Greek area of Ephesus where the cult of Artemis was served by the Melissae. In making the rick he collected various sticks on shamanic-type ‘medicine walks’ and bundled them together as one but marking each one with things like burns and colored thread so that the individual ones could still be identified. The tool was to be used to invoke Pan as the protector of bees and the first Bee Master. In the center of his bundle of twigs was made a collection of the author’s body parts (like hair and nail clippings) and bodily fluids excepting feces. These were gathered into the scrotum of a stag and bound into the center. This he would offer pollen as a frequent rite. The next step would be for him to kill a stag by trapping it in a net and suffocating it with pollen. This was a low point of the book for me as the necessity of doing such as thing did not seem useful or beneficial. Immediately after killing it he was to cut off the scrotum and gut the deer. Although I can relate to the necessity of meat as food for ancient peoples and the awareness skill of stalking animals in woods – I do not see the value of such a rite in modern times. To have meat perhaps – but also to have totem animal parts for magic – perhaps even there will be a connection for more powerful magic – this I do think is possible – but I also think there are consequences and that mere magical power does not warrant them for the wise and compassionate among us. The author manages to do the task in a ritualized format and finally gutting it. (as for me I am glad I have never killed a deer but once I did gut one according to instructions from the one who killed it but was too squeamish to gut it).

In the next section they row out onto an abandoned isle off the coast of Wales in late autumn (I think) very late on a moonlit night. Here was the Nightshade Isle and beehives amidst blooming heather. Apparently they transported the bees to this island to pollinate the nightshades (as is done for heather) and gather nectar for the hives. Here they build a fire and break out the witch’s flying ointment. Apparently there is a nightshade honey that is very potent in this regard. Apparently, deadly nightshade, thorn apple, and henbane all grow there so a potent flying ointment can be made. According to Bridge the potency of the honey is less than the actual plants so the toxicity is reduced. As he is getting rubbed with the ointment and nightshade honey on his now naked body the Bee Mistress and the magnetic Melissae appear and apparently as a banishing rite of sorts reveal their naked womanhood in a gesture lifting up their dresses. There is also a mention of them having a practice of urinating standing up (which seems a bit delicate to me). They all cover him with this honey. His task was to dance to the fire and back while Bridge played the tanging quoit. His warning instructions were to not fall asleep. His ancestral rick tied around his waist like a tail and with an erection caused by the Dark Flight (flying ointment) gave the impression that he was indeed riding his broomstick. They invoke the horned god as Cernunnos and the author claims to have an identity with the stag he had killed. He jumps the fire as the stag – but here the story become vague and visionary and ends when he jumps into the fire. Then he had a vision or something of seven or eight bees ceremonially stinging him in strategic places and then other bees coming from the fire and everywhere and licked the honey off of him. Then he has communication with the bees and gets an epiphany of words which he calls – the Song of Creation – a sort of creation myth.

The final ordeal involves them traveling to Wales to some sacred area and meeting with another beekeeper woman of the trad. Here Twig must enter the Beehive Hut – where he is buried under the earth with a stag bone tube to breathe through. The bone was coated with beeswax and his ears and nostrils were also filled with beeswax. Coins were placed over his eyes as in Ancient Greece with the dead. Here he describes the terror of the experience, falling asleep and partially and fully awakening to where he is. He also experiences a succubus demon and further he experiences death in the form of the Changer as they call it where he expresses regrets of his petty actions and pledges to be a better person.

Finally he chronicles the death of the old Bee Master and its effect on the community. This was a very compelling set of tales – far-fetched – probably yes, at least somewhat – his dreams and synchronicities seemed too spot-on relevant –  but who am I too judge or be jealous or suspicious? - at the same time the book was very intriguing and full of bee lore and esoterica and things to consider for ones such as myself who plan to take up beekeeping.