Dear friend,

You are receiving this Newsletter because you subscribed to The Magic of Connection, my free meditation course. I hope some of its suggestions have become part of your life and your spiritual harvest of the year.

This last week, I have returned to the land of my bloodline Ancestors and visited family, both living and passed. In Belgium, my country of birth, family graves are still cleaned and adorned with flowers ready for All Saints Day, when many people visit and say a prayer to those who have gone before.

The Magic of Connection has also taken me to my spiritual family in the last few weeks. I have spent a weekend at the White Horse Samhain camp, laughing and dreaming the future with my tribe. I have also stood in ritual with Cornovii Druid Grove and celebrated the season with a house sized bonfire – no exaggeration.

The same tribal connection led me to this week’s interviewee. Steve Gladwin, also known as Ardan, is a member of my Druid Camp tribe. For many years, he has journeyed deeply with connection and inspiration. The publication of his new book, The Seven, inspired me to invite him to contribute to this issue. I hope you’ll enjoy his story of magic, love and loss.

Blessings of the first frost,

Hilde

## In this issue
– Interview with Steve Gladwin, Druid, storyteller and author
– The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids
– What you can do to help Westacre

## Interview with Steve Gladwin (aka Ardan), Druid, storyteller and author

I met Ardan at an OBOD Lughnasadh camp several years ago. I know him as an accomplished storyteller and thoughtful man. When he started mentioning his book, The Seven, on social media, I decided he would be a great interviewee for the Westacre Newsletter.

Ardan’s answers to my questions proved me very right. He tells the story of his journey with the Welsh myths and stories, as well as with love and darkness, so compellingly that I haven’t had the heart to edit it down. So here it is in full: Ardan’s story of inspiration and connection. It reads like a myth of magical questing.

1. What brought you to Druidry and what keeps you there?

I have been a druid since 1994 and it has gone through many changes.

It began when I read two books; one which I knew I could not finish and later one which felt like both an old and familiar and a thrilling new coat. The first was The Celtic Shaman by John Matthews, which I knew then I was not ready for, and the second was Philip Carr Gomm’s The Druid Way which I still return to here and there and continues to move and inspire me. I knew nothing about druidry at the time apart from some crazy ideas no doubt inspired by The Wicker Man. The contrast with the gentleness of the journey Philip described in the book could not be greater but I also found in there other things like world issues, the question of religion and polarity, the battle of the sexes, war, and of course magic.

In the back of course you could send for an introduction to the full OBOD bardic course and with great excitement I did so and myself and my then partner studied and excited ourselves over it. We both signed up and were eventually self initiated as bards in our (thankfully not too overlooked) back garden. But there were two steps in the journey which transformed my life.

The first was the then annual OBOD retreat to Iona in June 1995 and the second the very first Samhuin camp in October 1996.

My going to Iona was I believe now the most important time in my life and I firmly believe that without it I wouldn’t be answering any of these questions.

So much so that it impacts on all the other questions. So if you’ll forgive me I I‘m going to use it to thread our way through the other questions.

At the time there was, very briefly something called The Druid Helpline and sometimes I imagine I must have made it up because maybe I was the only one who ever used it. Anyway for whatever reason I found myself talking to Chris Worthington as she was then and within a few minutes she’d told me that it sounded like I needed to come to Iona. So as I had money and that sort of thing in those days that’s just what I did. Which is where I’ll leave it for a while if you don’t mind because as I say, the subject is going to come back again.

You also ask what keeps me being a druid. Well as I’ve learnt once a druid always a druid. I spent barely a year and a half on the bardic grade and then on the ovate grade I seemed to go through everything during twelve years plus of that grade and am now you might say becalmed on the shores of druid grade with barely a toe in the water but it feels alright there. In that time I’ve felt that I’ve lost it altogether, this thing called druidry and belief and to be frank one of those times has been recently for various reasons.

But of late it has come back with a mighty surge and I think that’s the way to look at the whole thing. It keeps you there rather than you it. It’s very much that way and it’s taken me a long time to realise that no matter how grumpy I get with the whole thing it will and always has been there for me when I want to pick it back up. Lucky me.

2. You work as a storyteller. What is your inspiration and what magic do you find in it?

We’re back to Iona again, which is where it all started. Before then I had dabbled with performance and some storytelling. I’d gone from being a well paid drama teacher in Somerset to taking a punt by setting up a theatre company. We had hardly started when I went to Iona and I hadn’t done much storytelling but in the last year or so. I suppose at the same time I found druidry I’d discovered that as far as I was concerned all the great truths were contained within all the myths and stories of the world which I had loved since being a child. Nowadays this sounds a bit naive because you know – of course they are but I didn’t know it then.

So I went to Iona and it’s a magical place where I had the most powerful time and will never forget the people I shared those times with but it was what happened after that was so life changing. We had been working all week on the story of Taliesin and our daily meditations became more and more intense until on the last day we had the opportunity to be more or less reborn from the cauldron. That happened for many but not for me at the time. Instead it happened quite unexpectedly a week later in a pub skittle alley in a pub called The West India House in Bridgwater Somerset where I and an ex student were doing a special storytelling for Beltane. But I didn’t want to be there because I missed Iona and particularly a person I had rather inconveniently fallen in love with,(Iona is intense like that — I’ll warn you !!) So I’d picked up this story and hadn’t bothered to prepare it – just more or less skated through it because I couldn’t be arsed frankly. But it was a story which spoke to me about Iona and was and indeed is called The Woman From the Sea; one of the many stories of the selkie or seal people. It was from a collection of English folk tales by Kevin Crossley Holland and later Kevin and I and indeed the book which would become The Seven would become connected in remarkable ways.

Anyway that night I introduced the story something like “this is a story from the island of Uist but I prefer to think of it being from a place I am missing in particular at the moment. A place called Iona.’ What a grumpy sod hey? But what came out of my mouth as I begun to tell this ‘under prepared even to be kind’ story was a stream of pure story of the sort I had never encountered before. I came to realise later that I had been granted what the Welsh call awen and it has been with me ever since. This was my gift from the cauldron a week later than most others and I have always had it since and never taken it for granted.

That then is how my storytelling career and later The Seven and everything started. So you ask what my inspiration is. Well I was given it like little Gwion before he transformed into Taliesin, quite literally. And of course that was the other thing which Iona first gifted me, the story of Taleisin. A figure and a particular inspiration that has been with me pretty much ever since in one form or another.

So one way or another I’ve been a storyteller ever since and it has woven always into my life and druidry. My spiritual work has always had story at the root of it and continues to do so. My storytelling performing and writing work has been through many phases from life to both death and if you like my own resurrection more than once. I’ve just had — I feel – in many ways another one so that feels more than special. That’s something that The Seven has brought me which I’ll come back to.

3. You live and work in Wales. How did that come about and what is your connection with the land you live in?

The simplest answer to the last part of that would be ‘everything’ but that would be a bit glib maybe. I came to Wales because I fell in love with someone on a storytelling course and that, after Iona, was the second thing which changed my life. I recently went back to Ty Newydd where I met Celia for – would you believe it – the seventh time. It is also the seventh anniversary of her death so sevens are very much in evidence at the moment. Anyway we met at this wonderful writers’ centre and ended up working on a magical tale together called Midir and Etain; a rich and fabulous Irish myth which tells a tale of love, loss and reconnection over literally thousands of years and should really have warned us of what was to come.

Celia died of cancer in 2006 having been diagnosed in April 2005 and been granted what I now believe was a year’s relapse. But we had been living here in Meifod together since October 2001 and had been granted a few lovely years of storytelling and performing and among my best memories of that are the ones where we performed as Merlin and his lad in a series of shows for country houses, fairs and the like and for Shrewsbury museum. Sometimes as in many times in my career, things need to be profane as well as sacred and I will never forget the sight of a 50-odd year old woman with a baseball cap on backwards pretending to be a surly, gum chewing lad of 17.

A far cry from the magical myth side whereby we met but equally important and part of the overall picture. The fact that my grumpy Merlin shows up again in The Seven is not a co-incidence.

I love where I live now and always have done. Celia adored the Vyrnwy Valley if not so much the living on the A495 bit, (although that’s not as bad as it sounds). There is the river and the many walks which I need to take more of and be more courageous with it like she was and of course there is the grove, but that’s jumping ahead.

So yes of all the stories I have ever loved it’s the ones from Wales that speak to me the most. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that there are certain characters and themes I have been obsessed with since I first discovered them in the early nineties; Taliesin himself, the first two branches of the Mabinogi and maybe above all the one poem which is equally confusing, mythical, magical and impenetrable, The Preiddeu Annwn or ‘Spoils of Annen’ which is said to have been written by Taliesin. It’s maybe no coincidence that all of these things made their way into The Seven. Try stopping them !

4. How does Druidry weave into your life?

I’ve sort of pre-empted this a bit in question one but I’ll do my best to flesh it out. I think one of the very first things which attracted me to druidry was the celebration of the eight fold year and its cycle. After all in a perfectly mercenary way what could be better than the excuse for a party every six weeks or so? And when I first really experienced druidry other than on Iona it was this time with my then partner Josie and with that magical Samhuin camp I mentioned in Oxfordshire. It was all new and frightening to her and of course to me a little but not in the same way because of Iona. There really were dogs on a string, people with dirty looking dreadlocks, a huge bloke with a big belly in a sarong, (bless you Ivan) and shall we say some slightly approximate cooking at times. But there was also love and support and warmth and the only time I have ever felt an actual sense of no time and who cares if there is or isn’t?

Unlike some people I have never been blessed with visions or communion with other worlds but on the second night after the most magical journey called The Samhuin Nightmare I had my dead come to me there in my tent and parade smiling in front of me. I knew it was real because it had a certain ‘off’ quality to it. An — if you like — sense of connection. And it felt like what I used to call my ‘Doctor Who’ dreams when I was under gas at the dentist.

At that time camps were run by some really quite magical people and that made for a particular intensity.

Best of all they were from Dobunni Grove who were our local grove so after the camp we could go away from there and join the grove and do this sort of thing all over again.

I mention this because that first year and a half was the best of druidry for me and I feel enriched by both Iona and that first camp in ways that I couldn’t be by anything else. Druidry has continued that enrichment ever since through friends and experiences and that includes the one dear wise friend who both married Celia and I and then rather shockingly only two and a half years later had to preside at her rite of passage, but I have gradually fallen out of love with communal druidry for all kinds of reasons and for a long time I have practised a very private form. Sometimes and often by even not seeming to practice it at all.

But of late and much to my delight I have met up with a very small group of like minded druids who want to do magic without – if you like — the whistles and bells and over worthiness and I enjoy being with them so far.

5. What are The Seven? What can you tell us about the book and the steps that led you to writing it?

Mm well how long have you got? I will do my best to explain this organically and in the stages that it happened. But before that you ask who The Seven are to which the answer is many things and if I gave some of them away it would spoil the book. But I will tell you some of the – if you like — historic sevens. First of all they are the grove of trees that Celia and I found in 2004 and inspired this version of the book.

They are also the two companies of the cauldron; the remnant of the warriors of Arthur mentioned in the ‘none but Seven’ reference in the Preiddeu Annwn and maybe even more significantly the seven who formed the company of the Noble Head at the end of the story of Branwen. Both of these sevens feature heavily in the story which became The Seven. As I say there are also other sevens in the book but best leave that to when you read it.

So what was to become The Seven goes back as far as 1998 when I was on my own in the house when Josie was away for a week and it gave birth to the two things which would later have the greatest creative import in my life.

The first was the story adaptations which would eventually form the first draft of my adaptation of The Song of Taliesin, the wonderful collection of stories by John Matthews which I had fallen in love with, and would later perform and turn into a CD, and the entity which was to many years later become The Seven. And without the first there would have been no second, simple as that so thanks again John.

The Seven started as a children’s quest book inspired by the images in Nigel Pennick and Nigel Jackson’s Celtic Oracle which during that time I used as inspiration for a poem and accompanying bit of prose. Then when I was done with that I did the same with Philip, Steph and Bill’s wonderful Druid Animal Oracle, (which makes a very quiet undercover appearance in The Seven which I really should acknowledge here and now and say thanks for all of its inspiration).

Again it was poems followed by stories but of course this time there are 33 of them and increasingly the tone became more adult, themes, characters and threads appeared and became for a number of years a series of books for adults called ‘Lies of the Summerlands’. But my advice is never write from a series of inspirations like this because lovely as it is at the time it’s then impossible to pin down.

Years later and after many walks up and down the various places I have lived and gnashing of teeth and losing Celia I did the thing they say you should never do and dumped everything to do with the book; the printed drafts, the floppy discs, the actual computer stuff, and odd scraps of paper with ideas on. I regretted it for a while but then after a couple of mild panics quite unexpectedly the ‘great work’ was reborn in 2008 as a children’s book which was then called “Singing Head”. By this time I had discovered the real grove of course and it had given me great comfort after Celia. I had named the trees after the seven in the early book; The Child, Dark Lord, Warrior, Queen, Bard, Seeker and Mage, and now it played much more of a part in the book than it ever had and that felt right.

I had taken to asking everyone who I took up to the grove to pick their tree in the way Tony does in the book and it was always the right choice for them. I still do that.

The book itself in its new form tells the story of a grumpy boy of 11 who lives in Wales in a little village and who has lost his mother. He finds himself with an odd new best friend and on a strange quest inspired by seven paintings she has left him to both fulfil an ancient prophecy and eventually find his own identity. It mirrors the characters and story of Branwen, the second branch of the Mabinogi and includes appearances by Branwen, Efnisien, and also Taliesin, Arthur and Merlin amongst others. But it is also important to me that this is above all a story about loss and coping with change and the need for personal transformation.

I was lucky enough in this age of e-books to have a wonderful editor at Pont Books, a fine Welsh publisher, take it up and shake it around and very much make a silk purse out of a potential sow’s ear. The book wouldn’t normally have come out until the end of March but Viv left early to train for the priesthood, (that’s what what happens when you have to edit me) and so it came out Mid October and I feel very lucky in this respect. I have said elsewhere and will say again that even though The Seven is supposed to be a book for 7-11 year olds I hope that it is the sort of book that parents and children in particular can enjoy together. That would be my wish.

6. What does the magic of connection mean to you.

I’ll answer this in two parts if you don’t mind. First the course itself is something which I love the idea and indeed the generosity of your sharing in the way you have.

I myself began it before as they say life took over but that was enough to make me realise that it would be something I will value and cherish in the winter months to come. Its approach and discipline is something I very much need at the moment and I look forward to resuming it.

But as for the bigger question about connection well to me it means everything. The idea of connecting outside yourself with the wider entity of goddess and universe in particular. I think I’d like to mention the idea of synchronicity here which to me is one of the first things you pick up on on any magical path and there’s a the sort of thrill which is a bit like coming home when you do. That is of course all about connection. There is a reason you picked up that odd library book, or went that route instead of the other, or say in my case went on a course I could in any way afford when I’d given up on the idea.

Then there is the very opening out of yourself into the wider world and when it’s at its best bathing in that like it was in Iona and on my first Samhuin camp. And with me it has always been about the magic of story and connection and that is the part of my path that has never left me. The part that first granted me my awen all those years ago through a very special story.

And I’ll finish by saying that, that connection through that story is alive and well. I went back to Ty Newydd where Celia and I met for a writers course run by Kevin Crossley Holland and Malachy Doyle. In one of Kevin’s newer books the very first story is “The Woman From the Sea”.

I have now been on two more courses at Ty Newydd with Kevin and his and my journeys are forever linked by his story, by Celia and many other things and I count him now as a friend as well as a mentor.

Celia who so loved his work would have been delighted by the magic of that connection.

## The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids

In his interview, Ardan mentioned OBOD, the Druid order of which both of us are members. It has been an important influence in our lives and the lives of many others. Here is my story.

About a decade ago, I was deepening my investigation of Earth-based spirituality with shamanic practices as taught by Caitlin Matthews. But after years of working on my own, I felt a need for a community of like-minded people.

The idea of Druidry always appealed to me. It called to me as the shamanism of the land I lived on. At Pagan conferences and gatherings, I met some Druids who confirmed this for me. OBOD’s distance learning course and its network of Groves and Seedgroups seemed like a good place to start.

So I signed up for the Bardic grade, and joined the London Grove, as it was then called. One of its members, talked enthusiastically about OBOD’s Camps, and I decided to investigate. Before I knew it, I was co-running the London Grove under its new name of London Tamesis Seedgroup, and going to the camps as often as I could. It was obvious: I had found my community.

As is the case with many people, the OBOD community helps you find your strengths and to mould a creative life around them. Without the support of OBOD people, I would not be who I am today, and I would probably not be dreaming the Westacre dream.

For more information on the Order and its wide network of groups, camps, gatherings and initiatives, visit

www.druidry.org

## Help Westacre spread its story

The Westacre dream is taking shape, slowly but surely. Alex has been digging out the foundations so that they can be insulated.

We want to use the topsoil we are removing, so at the same time, Alex is constructing a raised bed by the South facing wall of the house. It will be filled with a mix of that top soil, compost, and other organic material.

To get daily news updates, ‘like’ us on Facebook, and tell your friends about it as well.

http://www.facebook.com/Westacreproject

If you want to find out more, our contact details and our presence on social media can be found here:

http://www.westacre.org.uk/contact

Dear friend,

Thank you to all of you who responded to my question in the previous issue. It is great to know that this Newsletter is getting read and appreciated. You’ve helped me complete my harvest.

And thank you to everyone who is reading this. I hope you enjoy this Samhain issue.

Although the weather is still very mild, the nights are drawing in and the autumn colours are more intense. The Earth is getting ready for winter, gathering the Summer’s growth to herself and keeping its riches for the growing season to come.

As the famous yin-yang symbol shows so clearly: everything contains and is contained by its opposite. The dying leaves of autumn are food for the new growth of spring. And everything that is fresh and new carries within it the beginning of death and decay.

Today’s meditation will take you deep into the darkness, beyond the veil, to find what seed of light is held within.

I would also like to introduce you to one of my most constant teachers. Oriah Mountain Dreamer and I have never actually met, but her books and her Facebook updates keep drawing me back and inspiring me. I hope she will do the same for you.

And for this season of darkness mixed with astonishing colour, I would encourage you to celebrate the humorously spooky side as well. Dress up as your most evil witchy self. Carve a pumpkin. Be spooked by the children who come trick-or-treating at your door. Balance the seriousness of this time with play and laughter.

Blessings of the Ancestors to you and yours,

Hilde

## In this issue
– Deep in the darkness – a meditation
– Oriah Mountain Dreamer – a source of inspiration
– Ways to help Westacre and win a Tarot reading

## Deep in the darkness – a meditation

This is the time of year when everything invites us to look at the darker side of life. Plant life is dying. The darkness grows. Soon, frost will edge the fallen leaves, precipitating the decay of all that once was green.

As we align our life with the cycles of Nature, it is good for us to look at our own darkness, at the parts of our lives that caused tears, at the parts of ourselves that compound suffering when it comes our way, at the circumstances that hurt.

The purpose is not to hold on to these things, but to truly feel them and let them go, like an autumn leaf on the wind. But autumn leaves are not just discarded. They are transformed into rich nutrition for what will grow next year.

Go to your usual place of meditation. Even when the frost does come, I prefer to work outside, wrapping myself in layers and my warmest coat. Choose a place where you can be comfortable and undisturbed for some time.

Sit down and take a few deep breaths. Let your body relax with each breath, letting your consciousness descend towards the Earth.

Let your roots and your mind touch the nearest tree, or a tree you know well. Let yourself feel the fallen leaves all around. Allow yourself to just be aware of the tree’s process of letting go of the year’s growth.

Call on your strength to be with you. It doesn’t matter how you experience this. You could simply feel your own life force hum within you more clearly. Or you might feel the tree you are with extend its protective aura around you. Or perhaps an animal or another spirit will show itself to your mind’s eye. Just let your strength be what it is.

When you feel settled, bring to mind something that has been difficult for you this year. It could be an illness, a loss, a relationship of any kind. Just hold it lightly in your mind.

Centred with your own strength, allow yourself to feel. Allow any feelings that surround this patch of darkness in your life to arise. Don’t judge it. Don’t hold on to it. Just sit with it. Be aware of how you feel. Allow the feeling to move through you any way it likes. If things get hard, call on your strength for support.

You will notice that, as you practice, these feelings slowly dissipate. They may wash through you and into the Earth. Or they may be borne away in the wind. Just notice what happens. Stay with the process as long as it is meaningful to you.

When all the feelings have passed, you are left with just the issue you are working with. Let your mind’s eye see it, right in front of you. Don’t force anything to appear. Just let the first image or impression come and stay with that.

As you watch, the image resolves or transforms into a luminous gem. This is the essential part of the issue that can feed you and teach you. Allow all other impressions to gently fall away, like leaves in Autumn.

Reach for the luminous gem. Just hold it in your hand for a while. There is no need to try and work out exactly what it is. The forest plants have no need to know the name of the nutrients that feed them. Just allow it to be its luminous self.

What would you like to do with this gem of inspiration? Will you absorb its light? Take it away with you in your pocket? Leave it by the tree, to find again another time? It is your choice.

When you are ready, give thanks for the teaching and the protection you have received. Let the images fade and return to your place of meditation.

Make yourself a cup of tea and a snack. Write down what you have experienced. And trust that the luminous teaching of your life’s experience will feed you for years to come.

## Oriah Mountain Dreamer – an inspiration

Twenty Years ago, a woman wrote a poem that went on the inspire many people. And as the Internet expanded, Oriah’s The Invitation was shared across the world.

The poem is a wonderful invocation of a life lived with intense awareness of ourselves and each other. Oriah went on to write three small books that are full of personal stories of her own faltering attempts at living that very Invitation.

You will find a lot of parallels between Oriah’s writing and my own. She has been a constant inspiration to me ever since I first read her books. We will both speak of acceptance and letting go of efforts to improve ourselves. And both of us speak of the beauty of life in its everyday extraordinariness. Only, of course, she says it so much more beautifully than I ever could.

You can find The Invitation poem, a link to Oriah’s blog, and an explanation of her rather New-Agey sounding name on http://www.oriah.org/

## Help Westacre spread its story

The Westacre Facebook page has been languishing at about 96 ‘likes’ for a very long time. It gives you daily updates on the Westacre Project, blog posts from the Project Blog and my own weekly writings, and since recently a cute animal of the day – my attempt to make up for a lack of cats in her life.

I will give away a free Tarot reading to the 100th person to ‘like’ the page. Depending on your location and preference, this can come to you in person, over Skype, or via e-mail.

http://www.facebook.com/Westacreproject

If you want to find out more, our contact details and our presence on social media can be found here:

http://www.westacre.org.uk/contact

Dear friend,

As we gather damsons and apples at Westacre, I am truly grateful for my harvest. I have had a wonderful year.

It hasn’t been what I expected. We never really started our renovation project, for various reasons, including unhelpful professionals. But personally, I feel I have grown so much. My spirituality has taken root and flight at the same time. And the Magic of Connection has reached 80 or so people.

And then there are the potatoes, damsons, apples, and nasturtium flowers. And the sweet scent of Autumn descending on the Westacre garden.

One thing is making me wonder, though. I would like to ask you a straight question:

* Are you reading this Newsletter? *

I have put out six issues of the Westacre Newsletter before this one. There have been two interviews with interesting Pagans (is there another kind?), meditations and a ritual, and an article about lunar rhythms. There have also been reviews of web sites and events that are working on solutions for the troubles of our world. All offered completely free to people who registered for the Magic of Connection.

Did you read them? What did you think of them? Did you try a meditation or a ritual? Did you order anything from Carolyn Mee Bendy Dolls? Her discount offer is still valid until the end of October, exclusively for you!

So far, I have had no feedback at all from these Newsletters. You could add so much to my year’s harvest by sending me your thoughts. How was The Magic of Connection course for you? What do you think of the content of this Newsletter? Which bits have you liked? What other content would be interesting to you? And if it hasn’t appealed, why not?

Just reply to this e-mail and give me your thoughts.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond.

Blessings of autumn sunshine,

Hilde

## In this issue
– A ritual of thanksgiving for the harvest
– Tree Sisters – a young but ambitious charity
– Ways to help Westacre produce content that is useful for you.

## A ritual of thanksgiving for the harvest

The closest many of us come to the physical harvest of the Land is in the vegetable isle in the supermarket. And there, the harvest seems to go on without fail, all year long.

What really happens out in the fields is of course different. The very clearly defined seasons of Western Europe see the world rise into life, flourish, and fruit each year, before everything dies back again in to the Earth for the cold sleep of Winter.

Celebrating the actual and metaphorical harvests of our own lives at this time of year gives us an opportunity to connect ourselves to the rhythms of Nature. Doing so gives our lives shape and meaning. Try this simple ritual and get in tune with the year’s rich harvest.

To prepare for your ritual, you will need to gather a few things. For each element around the ritual Circle, gather at least one thing that you have harvested this year. Give it some thought. What are you proud of? What are you grateful for?

For Air, you may pick a poem you wrote, or the notes from a course you took, or a song you composed. Anything to do with the mind, with language, with sounds carried in the wind.

For Fire, choose a painting, or your best crochet project. Or choose something you achieved through sheer force of will. Anything to do with visual arts, passion and purpose is appropriate here.

For Water, select a token of progress you made with a health issue, photos of yourself with good friends, or something you cooked. Anything that speaks of love or healing, or appeals to taste and smell, is great for this element.

For Earth, you may want to bring actual fruit and veg from your own garden, or something that required strength and patience to make. You may want to bring your bank account, if your business has been successful. Anything to do with the physical, the practical, and with monetary wealth fits here.

Arrange your harvests around your working space in the appropriate directions. If you have limited time or space, you could just put a stone or other object in each direction. Just be very clear about what each one represents.

Put a candle or an object of natural beauty at the centre of the Circle.

Cast your Circle formally, or just slowly walk around your working space, marking its edge. Sit at the centre of the Circle for a while, feeling your personal energy expand slowly into its area.

When you are ready, move to one of the directions. It doesn’t really matter what order you do them in. Choose what feels right in the moment.

Sit down with your harvest in that direction. Take your time to give thanks. Who was involved in bringing you this harvest? What inspired you to create this thing? What materials did you use? What spirits supported you? Let your thanks go deep and wide. Now move your object from the edge to the centre of the Circle.

Move to each of the directions, speaking your thanks out loud if possible. Let your voice touch the Web of Life, carrying your thanks to the spirits who brought you your harvest.

When you have finished, sit at the centre of your Circle and feel the abundance you have been given. Consider what you may give in return. Perhaps you can sing your gratitude right now. Or perhaps you feel you need to give a physical offering at some other time. Celebrate in whatever way seems appropriate.

When you are ready, close your ritual in the way you have started. And may the gratitude continue within your being, within your life.

## TreeSisters – a global network of women to help reforest the tropics

I’m not a joiner. It took me years to join my Druid Order. I’m not a member of anything. So when I tell you that last week I joined TreeSisters, you know it’s significant.

The founders of TreeSisters were concerned about the challenges our planet faces, especially about climate change and deforestation of the rain forests. So they decided to do something about it.

Their strategy is twofold. First of all, they intend to collect money for existing organisations who plant trees, aiming to reforest the tropics in the next ten years. Secondly, they are growing their charity through the leadership of women.

The reasons for wanting to reforest the world are clear: trees produce the oxygen we breathe and capture the CO2 that is damaging our atmosphere. Tropical trees grow faster than our moderate climate ones, so they can be of benefit faster.

At the same time, TreeSisters aims to encourage women to find their unique power and to use it actively for the good of our world. In recent centuries, economies and countries have been run by men, and where women have succeeded in making a contribution, they have had to adapt to the male ways of working.

But what if that has done more harm than good? Perhaps it is time now for women to step forward from their own strengths and lead us in a new direction.

Right now, TreeSisters are only a seed, just sprouting. They are building their early supporter base and are working on a structure for volunteers. It is a very young organisation that encourages women come together and shape the organisation. Men, also, are invited to consider what they may contribute.

Clare Dakin, co-founder of TreeSisters, speaks passionately of her vision and her ambition for this organisation. Watch her on YouTube and decide if you would like to support her work.

http://www.treesisters.org/

## Help Westacre produce content that is useful to you

Please reply to this e-mail and let me know what you think of the Westacre Newsletter.

If you want to find out more, our contact details and our presence on social media can be found here:

http://www.westacre.org.uk/contact

Dear friend,

As you have noticed, Westacre’s Newsletter is a bit of a moveable feast. Most of the time (but not always) it will get to you on a Monday. Most of the time (but not always) it will come every other week. It’s just a matter of juggling it along with all the other balls in the air at Westacre.

In the last week, we have had some friends to stay who were waiting for their rented accommodation to become available. They have been very helpful, weeding a patio area and mowing the lawn. They also gave me some healing when my famous stomach ache took a serious turn for the worse. It was great to have them around. We love playing hosts here at Westacre.

We have finally broached our damson harvest. We picked 12kg of fruit, and turned it into 45 jars of damson jam. And that represents only a tiny proportion of the damsons still on the trees. We are thinking of putting out a ‘pick-your-own’ sign. If you would like some, come and help yourself. Bring a bag.

I have hooked up with my OBOD community in another way as well. Last Sunday, I took part in Cornovii Grove’s ceremony for the Autumn Equinox. Druids work together in Groves, and this is an old and established one. It was lovely to see some old friends and meet some new ones. I’m looking forward to the Samhain version already.

On Saturday, 28th September, a remarkable event in the history of British Paganism took place at Glastonbury. Alex and I both got involved. This Newsletter contains an impression of the day.

Blessings of the colouring leaves,

Hilde

## In this issue
– Interview with Carolyn, from Carolyn Mee Bendy Dolls
– Exclusive offer from Carolyn Mee Bendy Dolls
– An impression of the Warrior’s Call, a ritual to protect Albion against fracking.
– Ways to help Westacre spread its story.

## Carolyn Mee, pagan, craft maker and home educator: an interview

- What gave you the idea for the bendy dolls?

“Handmade by Mee” is the result of years of making things with the boys as part of our Home Education journey. I have always been a creator and crafter. As a child I loved to make things. I would make books to write in and draw in from scrap paper, I learnt to sew and knit with my mother, I made origami from Rupert annuals. I even tried quilling and fondant decorations for cakes!

I am very interested in the Rudolf Steiner (Waldorf) style of education and although we have never followed its methods exactly, our autonomous style of education has allowed us to bring in many of its ideas. I was most interested in the nature appreciation and the simplicity of the toys, in line with my Pagan views.

We started a season table and along with the things we collected on our many dog walks, I made a Mother Nature, a Father Winter and some simple Flower girls. The patterns/ ideas came from some Waldorf books that I bought, along with some more complicated play dolls.

I love the colours and the quality of the 100% wool felt. I then found some bendy wooden figures and made clothes for them, but we didn’t like them as much as the dolls in ‘Felt Wee Folk’ by Sally Mavor. I used her book and my own ideas to make some Forest Folk, including Forest Elders which the boys loved.

I made them a forest setting with pine needles, fir cones and branches that we collected, and some simple wooden chairs for an exhibition that Rob was doing in our local library. I also made Faeries, witches, wizards and flower girls and packaged them up for sale.

From there I was invited to a local craft fayre and then Facebook brought requests for Mini Me’s, Harry Potter, Pink and Stuart costumed dolls with the Wedding Dolls in frames following soon after. I have also made flower girls and faeries in frames which can be personalised with names and dates of births for christenings.

- All this is part of a bigger business you run. Tell us a bit more about that.

My husband and I run ‘The Nook’, a small picture framing shop in the canalside village of Cropredy. Rob displays his artwork and framing skills on the walls, my dolls, fairy doors and felt creations on sale there along with some carefully selected crafters’ work….pottery, small leather goods, organic soaps , prints and cards.

My working life is threefold:

I have the day to day housework and mum hat,

I have the education facilitator hat,

And I have the creator/crafter/business woman hat.

But it doesn’t really get broken down in that way. It is more holistic than that. Our days are usually a combination of all three. If I tried to separate it, I don’t think myself or the boys would be happy. I’m not very good at compartmentalising things.

– Do you have a daily spiritual practice?

I guess it’s the same with my spirituality. I don’t see it as a separate thing. It is not an act of worship, as such, more a way that I live my life. My love of nature and the outdoors being the biggest part, with the people I see and communicate and surround myself by, being another. Like minded individuals and families are very important on our journey. Support from and for others is what it is all about.

– How did you come to live on a canal boat?

We have always spent a lot of time in the woods or along the canal, and always talked about living on a boat. We have come very close on several occasions, but this time we just had to seize the opportunity with both hands and see where it takes us!!

‘Warspite’ is a 60ft narrowboat that was commissioned by the Royal Navy in the 70’s I believe. It has been dressed up as a submarine and used as a training boat for the Sea Cadets when it had a total of 12 bunks! The present owner bought it about 8 years ago and converted it to a very basic live-aboard for himself and his partner.

Following a change of circumstances, we are now renting it with a view to buying it as soon as our house sells. It has given us the opportunity to try boat life before committing ourselves financially! As I said it is all very basic, and needs some TLC, but I love it.

- What does the Magic of Connection mean to you?

We are so close to nature on here. I hear woodpeckers drumming against the tree trunk early in the morning (I even managed to see him once!), ducks dabbling along the side of the boat, eating the algae, I guess. We see the bats and house martins swooping along the water at dusk, hear the owls at night, and the swans stick their heads in the side hatch for their bread crusts!

This is my daily practice. Listening to the sounds of nature; observing the seasonal changes; watching the moon phases; seeing the sun set and watching the mist creep across the water in the morning.

This is the Magic of Connection.

– You can find Carolyn’s work on her Facebook pages:

http://www.facebook.com/BendyDolls

http://www.facebook.com/HandmadebyMee

## Bendy Dolls exclusive offer

Carolyn’s little felt bendy dolls are delightful. She makes woodland people, fairies, brides and grooms and fairy tale creatures. She takes orders for ‘mini me’ dolls of yourself or your favourite film star or sports personality.

Especially for you, Carolyn is offering a reduced price of £15 for a Matching Door and Doll set, as well as a 10% reduction on individual dolls and doors. This does not include postage and packaging.

This offer is valid for the whole of October. Get your Christmas orders in early!

You can contact Carolyn via her Facebook pages. Please include the code WN6-B3ndy with your order.

## The Warrior’s Call – an impression

Glastonbury is known by some as the heart chakra of the world. It certainly is a powerful place. I think of myself as quite solid and grounded, but in Glastonbury, I float off into a state of otherworldliness.

The magic there is palpable. The Tor rises high over the town, and at its foot two springs discharge their water: the Red Spring, full of iron, in the Chalice Well Garden, and the White spring, coloured with chalk, just a few hundred yards away. To many people across the world, this place is deeply sacred.

But the very springs that make Glastonbury so special are threatened. The shale rock under Somerset, and many other parts of the UK, contains natural gas. Corporations are intent on harvesting this gas through the unconventional method of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking. The process involves many dangers, to our global climate, to the local environment, and to the wells of Glastonbury themselves.

Fracking involves forcing fresh water laced with many chemicals deep into the earth. This fractures the rock and lets the gas escape. The waste product produced by this process is very toxic and radioactive water. Methane also escapes during the process.

The chemicals pumped into the earth and the waste water can easily contaminate ground water sources, including the ones that feed Glastonbury’s wells. Methane is a strong greenhouse gas, and it will contribute to global warming before we even burn the gas extracted.

Because of the threat to this sacred site and our environment, a call went out to all pagans to gather for a ritual of protection at Glastonbury Tor at midday on 28th September. Many people answered the call. Satellite rituals sprang up across England and around the world. Pagans spoke with one voice to protect our land and our sacred sites from fracking.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Tor on Saturday, bringing drums, rattles, and their brave hearts. At the centre of the circle stood a group of friends, who through shared dreaming had prepared a ritual full of colour and sound.

After the Druid had called Peace to the quarters, the elements were honoured. For each element, a large dragon, carried by up to ten people, ran around the circle to the sound of cheering and drumming.

The God Gwyn ap Nudd, guardian of the Tor, and the Goddess Bridie, guardian of the sacred wells, were called into the circle. A Warrior spoke with passion about the sacred land. He called on Arthur, who sleeps in all of our hearts, to waken and protect the land in this time of need. He called for people to drum and focus the power of protection into the centre of the circle.

The power of the drumming rose and swelled. Representatives of the four elements directed it into a grid of protection that stretches across the land. As the work went on, a heart shaped cloud formed in the sky above the Glastonbury wells.

As the rite ended, the Warrior asked everyone to speak a pledge to keep working for the protection of the land. Individuals took their oaths, atop the Tor or as they left the field. These were the words many people used:
I swear
to work both practically and magically
for the protection of Albion against fracking.

Many wonders, some so unlikely that I hesitate to repeat them here, attended our ritual. A beautiful, heart-felt magic was worked. May it continue to spread across the land.

“A blessing on your heart. A blessing on your quest.”

## Stay in touch and help the Westacre Project

Please help us spread the word about the Westacre Project and the Spiritual Centre. The more people we find who are interested , the more we can inspire to take their own steps towards connected living.

Our contact details and our presence on social media can be found here:

http://www.westacre.org.uk/contact