Tag Archive | druids













Poetry Month – Who is the Goddess?

The Goddess is dark and beautiful with knowing eyes.

The Goddess is old and walks with a cane.

The Goddess is the colour of rich cream and is surrounded by art.

The Goddess is the colour of brick dust and watches over the flocks surrounded by no one.

The Goddess is pink, flushed from a race.

The Goddess is pale and sits alone in the dark.

The Goddess is small and wizened with dark eyes.

The Goddess is round and strong with muscular arms from hard work.

The Goddess is thin and ill and labours to breathe for it is work.

The Goddess stands with arms out blessing her gardens and fields.

The Goddess is dying in her bed surrounded by ones who love her.

The Goddess dies alone on a dirty street ignored with the trash.

The Goddess cries at injustice and pain and abuse.

The Goddess walks strongly on mountain path leading children of all shapes sizes and colours.

The Goddess follows behind and hopes she makes a difference.

The Goddess is in everyone of us.

The Goddess looks like us.

The Goddess is in the mirror.

Listen to her.

©2014 Kat Robb

Druids in LA

Okay, trying to get back on track with my proposed gathering of LA Druids. I got derailed by personal events but I still want to have a gathering of Druids of all the organization and like-minded individuals. I know there are ADF and OBOD people and obviously DCD people here. I’ll bet there are others hiding in the LA shrubbery.

I’m thinking of Franklin Canyon which is the geographical center of LA and has a nature center and an amphitheater and lots of nature trails or Sepulveda Basin Amphitheater which also has nature trails available and I think April 22, 2016 would be great since it’s Earth Day weekend. It would be fun to do a clean up or service project too while we are there.

I’m hoping we can get at least 50 people and if it works continue it every year. We could use the amphitheater for a few presentations and get to know one another in a wonderful outdoor setting that’s pretty central to all of LA. If I can’t get those maybe I can rent a Scout House that weekend or go to some place like Chilao Nature Center up Angeles Crest or out at one of the other sites like Arcadia Wilderness Park.

I think if we have a shareable picnic feast and have everyone bring something to share and sample, we have people do that with TOILA rituals and we always get a wide variety for people to eat and people with allergies can bring what they need to eat and still eat and network with other Druids. And if it gets hot in the afternoon we can have a Bard sharing corner where people can be quiet and not be too active in the heat.

Anyway that is sort of the idea, I’m tossing around right now. If it works we can always grow.

A new Littlest Druid story – The Littlest Druid creates

Aisling watched the rain fall outside the stone window and expected that this was going to be a long day. It was a soft rain but steady and since it was just another day in a long line of rainy days. She sighed.

She supposed she could work on the piece she had been trying to write. It was almost La Fheil Brighde and she had been trying to write a new hymn to Brighid. It was the first time in almost a year she had been back to the village since she had been consecrated a Bard.

It had been a wonderful year but a lonely one. She had told all the stories she had learned. Learned some new ones along the way. Sung some songs and walked long distances alone except for sheep and a few wild deer she had been lucky enough to chat with along the way but now she was home for a rest and to celebrate Brighid’s day.

She wondered if Brighid was going to appear at the ritual. Here Aisling was one of many and the newest Bard still so she wouldn’t be part of the ritual unless she could come up with a good enough piece to please the Chief Druid and the Head Bard. The Head Bard had never forgiven her for her raven’s thievery so it was always hard to impress him.

She had a tune that kept circling her brain like her raven drifted in the sky but it wouldn’t settle in or enlighten her with the words that were supposed to go with it. She supposed she could go get one of the smelly sheep skins and wrap herself up in and find it but that had never worked well for her. All she could think about was the poor old sheep it had come from and they stunk. Sheep’s wool was still itchy on or off the sheep. She wondered if sheep itched from their wool but probably not and she couldn’t really ask them and get a good answer.

She decided to take a walk in the rain, maybe that would shake something loose. She grabbed her cloak and her carved staff which had gathered more carvings when she had been away and her bag with her whistle and started on the path out of the village to their standing stones. She could hear the sheep in the fold moving around and knew they would be out on the hills soon and giving birth. She wondered if her favourite ewe was pregnant again, she was an old friend.

It was too wet for the raven to be out and about so she walked alone up the hill. She pulled out the whistle and started to play the tune that was swirling in and out. It was lilting and she could almost hear the words but they were just out of her reach. She reached the circle of stones and sat with her back against one. Somehow these stones were always comforting. She could see the first snowdrops blooming on the hill behind the stones and she started to sing.

Spring comes and brings the lambs
Brighid comes and wakes our land
From darkest night to the coming of day
The light returns after darkest day

I sing of healing
I sing of new life
I sing of love and the return of the light

We are inspired and live to create
We use our hands, wonderous things to make
From nothing they come, to use they go
The coming of spring after winter’s snow

I sing of healing
I sing of new life
I sing of love and the return of the light

I sing of her guidance and the sense of peace
I sing of her patience while I try to create
I sing of inspiration and the raising of hope
I sing of her flame we keep in the grove

Brighid, I welcome you at the start of your day
Please guide me with your flames to light my way
Inspire me, create me a new every day
Forge me and make a flame for a day

I sing of healing
I sing of new life
I sing of love and the return of the light.

“Thank you.” a voice behind Aisling’s stone said and Aisling turned around quickly. Brighid was standing there in her beautiful green cloak and dress.

“You heard it?” Aisling finally squeaked out.

“Every word and note.” Brighid laughed softly. “It’s lovely and you had better share it.” She said with a twinkle. “Aisling, I thank you for honouring me with it. Blessings of the day, dear one” and she was gone.

Aisling shivered to herself. Brighid had liked it! That ought to be enough for the Head Bard but most of all it was enough for her. She settled back against the stone after tugging her hood back down on her curls. It was going to be a wonderous day.

The Littlest Druid celebrates Lughnasad












“You there! Sit up.”






”Can you sing?” asked the man.












thoughts on Chapter 2 of Mist Filled Path

People of Shapes, Children of the Mists


The Egyptians believed the soul had 5 parts: the Ib (Heart), the Sheut (shadow), Ren (Name), Ba (everything that makes you, you), Ka (your life force), Akh (your thoughts or intellect). The Old Irish believed the soul was in three cauldrons that maintained the health of the soul: the cauldron of warming (your life force) in your belly, the cauldron of vocation (that which dwells in your heart, and the cauldron of knowledge (wisdom) which was in your head.

All these parts of the soul can cause what has been referred to as soul loss and at times may need to be regarded as “lost”. Frank Mac Eowen has some techniques in this chapter for seeing whether your soul is missing anything and gives some advise about recovery of the soul and if you may need help doing that recovery.

He says that interaction with nature can help you integrate your spirit and shape us. That we shape ourselves by what we hold in our minds, that we shape ourselves and others by our actions. And that we are all shaped by things we can’t even grasp such as the elements.

He states that the Celtic people are water people and are shaped and built by the landscapes of the people, that the people of Wales, Brittany and Cornwall are people of the shore. Some are surrounded by water such as the people of the Ireland, Isle of Man, the inner and outer Hebrides. The people of Scotland are shaped by the lochs and that all Celts are influenced by the holy wells and streams. I’m not sure I agree with all of that because I think the Irish and the Scots are very much influenced by the earth also. The Irish live in a land that is green and fairly fertile and is somewhat gentle compared with the mountains and crags of the Scottish Highlands, People who flourish there have to have a different kind of mindset than a people where the land provides a slightly easier living. It’s why the Scots set sail on the sea and does make them more watery for having to get their living from the oceans but it grounds them and makes them feel the need to fight for their living. And it did translate to the need to explore and seek new places, in a new land. The US Navy was founded by a Scot after all, John Paul Jones.

Because of all this water he calls us the Children of the Mist, and he tells part of the story of Clan MacGregor and equates it with the Highland Clearances. As some one who is a MacGregor on both my mother and father’s sides of the family, I know there is much more to the MacGregors and why they were Children of the Mist and it wasn’t just their fight with the Colquhouns. If that were so the MacFarlanes would have been proscribed also since the Colquhouns were one of their favourite targets for cattle thievery and other activities. Just as the full moon was named MacFarlane’s lantern because that was when they did a lot of their raiding, the Children of the Mist, could disappear not just because the proscription which actually happened more than once, but from their ability to fade away out of sight. “Fight and run away and live to fight another day”. Something Clan MacDonald forgot and got walloped for by the English and the Campbells. The Clearances did, however, lead to the diaspora.

The English landlords were ruthless in clearing the lands for sheep and wool which was the backbone of the English economy. The troops would arrive in the night, give little time to pack and place you on ships to America, Australia and Ireland. And lest you think of returning, burn all that you had left behind. A fighting and proud people who depend on land for their identity were wiped away and forced to find new roots. And because the are a people who value stories they romanticized it to make the stories easier on their hearts. For a people whose greatest punishment was exile and their greatest good was hospitality these are traumas to the very soul of a people when they were exiled from their lands. The potato famine did much the same to the Irish. It wasn’t that there wasn’t enough food, it was that what good food like wheat was being sent to England and all the Irish were left with was the potato and the English weren’t exactly heartbroken to see the troublesome Irish have to leave.

And so two proud peoples went into exile and took with them a hate of the English, this lead to something like the Revolutionary War, the Law of Unintended Consequences in action and that behaviour of the English is still hated even today. The English taught the Scots and the Irish how to hold a grudge. Frank MacEowen says this and the historical and mythological migrations of the Celts led to having a spirit of longing, that it made us seekers. He may be right about that.