Where does it all end, if it actually does!!

Hello my fellow travellers

I am going slightly off topic this time to look at something that people are always asking me about, Reincarnation. In light of what has recently happened I thought it would be a good time for me to talk about this.

As I started my spiritual journey in Buddhism I was lead into a belief not before known to me, or so I thought, and that was the idea of reincarnation. I had never really given this much brain time but the more I read about it the more it began to make things clearer for me, my onward path into Druidry just helped to firm up the notion that this was a real part of my path and that it just made perfect sense that this was a real thing.

Have you ever had that feeling when you have been somewhere that you have been there before? I have and strangely it has happened more times than you think. I remember many many years ago going on a camping trip with my then girlfriend, we went to a place in called Bude which is a small seaside town in the North of Cornwall, just over the border from Devon, its a beautiful little seaside town which I had never been too before, we looked at it on a map and thought, yep let's go there.

It was a lovely drive, the scenery was stunning as you would expect from Cornwall and the coast road and beaches were breathtaking, (I promise I do not work for the Cornish Tourist Board) we arrived at the campsite and as always I unpacked the tent and set it all up as my lady friend was not a keen camper and therefore decided that helping was not an option, in all honesty I probably did it alot quicker and with less stress than if I had had help. Once set up, we sat down with a drink and planned a basic itinery of what we would like to do during our holiday. Top of the list for me was to visit Tintagel, even then I loved the mystery and the history related to these places. I was a long way off of my Druid journey, or was I? I have said many times before that I believe that I have always had the Druid path inside me but not known fully what it was. I also wanted to visit the witches museum in Boscastle and to eat my weight in traditional cornish pasties.

We headed off the following morning and drove into the town, this is where things started to get creepy and strange for me, I parked up and we started to walk around, I had this strange feeling of knowing where I was despite never being there before, I was walking about recognising things and places which all seemed quite weird, at one point someone stopped me and asked if I knew where something was and I directed them straight to it. I know right? We went to Tintagel and as we were exploring, I had this strange sense of having been there before also. I have noticed these happen to me quite often, whether it is to do with reincarnation, past life experiences or just an amazing geographical knowledge I can't answer that one, but what I can say is that I believe it was to do with my journeying this wonderful earth before in a different form.

This is a topic that I feel has no definitive answer, some believe, others don't as with everything to do with the Druid path we all walk, it is a personal thing, I would not force my views or opinions on to anyone as I would not like others opinions forced onto me, it is something we all discover on our own. I know many of you will have things that have happened and not been able to explain them, this is part of the great mysteries of life.

I suppose the way I look at it is this, I see myself as a Druid living on this Earth as part of the great family of all things nature based, I see flowers, trees, animals, insects, bugs, bees and birds as all part of my collective family. I watch flowers grow from a small seed into something beautiful, I watch as this beauty blossoms filling my eyes with wonderous sights, my nose with wonderful scents and my heart with such love. I then watch as this beauty slowly starts to fade, the flowers that held my gaze in all their magnificence turn slowly into seed pods, these in turn dry out and fall to the ground, back into the arms of mother nature to be held in her warm embrace until they are ready once again to germinate and grow into those wonderful flowers that we watched grow before, the same is said of the trees. Looking at it this way I feel that this is how reincarnation explains itself to me. I grow from a small seed, I am born and I develop into the person I have become, I gain knowledge from all that is around me throughout my many years living, and being part of this amazing place, then as like the flower I start to slowly fade away until the day I take my final breath and I fall into the warm embrace of mother earth, I change from a body to become part of the soil around me connecting once again with my roots until I start to grow again, whether it be a tree, a flower an insect an animal or a human being who knows, but I know I will be around for many many moons to come.

The knowledge that I gain from all my years walking the earth doesn't just disappear, it is passed on, re told, built upon and once again shared, this is how we understand and can feel the presence of our ancestors, their teachings and their knowledge, their past life has ended but all they knew and learnt is shared, this is their gift to us and this is their point of reincarnation.

If I look back on my Bardic journey, one of the first stories I heard and happily tell to anyone who wants to listen is the story of Taliesin. This is a great depiction of all I have said today.

 

The Story of Taliesin

Gwion Bach was a lad who, with the help of Morda tended the fire under Cerridwen's cauldron which held the potion that would give her son the powers to be enlightened, to see all, to know all, the radiant brow. You see Cerridwen had a daughter who was the most beautiful girl in the land, she also had a son, who was born ugly, Cerridwen loved her children equally but wanted to do all she could to help her son, so she asked for help, her inspiration came in the form of a potion that would contain all of the gifts of knowledge, power and wisdom, the potion had to brew in the cauldron for a year and a day for the full effect and then just three drops would be all she needed to give her son these gifts. Alas due to Morda falling asleep and not tending the fire as he was tasked the cauldron boiled over on the final day sending the three drops of the potion on to Gwions thumb instead, he immediately sucked his thumb to ease the burning pain at which point he was gifted with all the knowledge that was to be for Cerridwen's son. The cauldon cracked spilling the remaining contents over the floor, this remaining potion turned to poison and seeped into the ground.

Gwion, suddenly aware of what he had done ran away so as not to face the wrath of Cerridwen but to his dismay she saw what had happened and became so angry that her son had been deprived of the powers of the Awen that she gave chase, through the chase Gwion shape shifted into a hare to avoid capture, however, she changed to a hound, he came to the river and changed into a salmon, seeing this Crerridwen changed into an otter again giving chase, he then turned into a Wren and flew high into the sky at which point she transformed into a Falcon and continued the chase, as Gwion flew over a farm he dropped from the sky, in a last ditched attempt to hide from Cerridwen he turned into a grain of corn and fell amongst the other grains, unfortunately Cerridwen seeing this turned into a big black hen and ate all of the grain swallowing Gwion. This looks like the end for Gwion, Cerridwen had got her revenge, she had killed the boy who stole the gifts from her son. No, for Gwion grew inside her and nine months later she gave birth to a child, she desperately wanted to kill him for what he had done but she couldn't, once she looked upon this child and saw his radiance, she had a change of heart, she could not kill him but also she could not keep him, instead she placed him in a small leather raft and set him loose on the river and left. Gwions journey had not ended, he found himself caught up on a weir and began to cry, he was rescued by a man who was just out fishing when he heard the cries of the baby. He looked upon this child laying helpless, he saw his radiant brow and named him Taliesin, he took him home and raised him as his own. Taliesin became the greatest Bard in the world.

 

You can see from this where I see reincarnation coming into Druidry, this boy, Gwion, died but was reborn as Taliesin, this to me speaks of reincarnation.

Well that was my little bit of wisdom for the day that I wanted to share with you all my dear friends. I hope you liked it, as always this is just my view of my path, some believe in this others not but it matters not, for we all share a common goal at the end of the day regardless of how our path runs, we all seek knowledge from all that is around us and we all want to share this, which is what makes us who we are.

Take care and Stay safe

Blessed be my friends /|\