February 24, 2023 • 15 mins
Let’s begin with a story...
Michael gets an unexpected invitation which leads him to a hidden grove – and onto the ancient path of the Druid.
Enlisting the help of a true ’soul-singer’, the pair prepare to call up the creative energy which Druids and Bards call Awen.
Through song and story, insight and meditations, this series will explore how to access that mystic force and use it in your life. So journey with us – and learn to listen for the Awens call!
[CC] Episode is Closed Captioned
THIS EPISODE’S SONGS:
Walk the Land: Lyrics / Music © 2023 SymboMusic / Michael Sebastien
Black Pine (Acoustic Version): Lyrics / Music © 2023 SymboMusic / Michael Sebastien
* * * * * * * *
Buy music from this series on our Bandcamp: awenscall.bandcamp.com (it'll grow...)
Our SITE is at AwensCall.com
Follow us on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK: @awenscall
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:20):
I'm Michael Sebastian and over the years I've explored many spiritual paths.
But it was a strange encounter that started my journey on.
maybe the oldest of all – the path of the Druid!
(00:46):
[BIRDSONG]It's an early summer morning.
The grass here is soaking and I'm avoiding the stinging nettles with my bare feet.
I'm in the Cotswold Hills in the west of England and I brought you here to share my Druid's Tale – because it all began here, when I was invited on a mystic journey – by a pine tree!
yep,
(01:07):
you heard that right.
[SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS IN THE GRASS]I've walked across this patch of land for years and it's always felt incredibly familiar to me,
almost like I had some past life here.
If I did,
I doubt the place has changed that much.
The local village,
I can see down there in the valley was featured in the Domesday Dook.
I can see a tithe barn,
(01:27):
there's miner's cottages, and the hills are sliced by sheep tracks with high stone walls called 'drungways'.
There's a spiritual history around here too.
Within thirty miles you'll find burial sites,
Long Barrows,
the great stone circles of Avebury and Stonehenge; and of course Glastonbury,
(01:48):
the isle of Avalon! And 30 miles over there to the west.
Well,
basically,
you've got the whole of Wales,
which is fairly drenched in Druidry,
Now,
I'm not saying these hills are alive with the sound of Druids,
but over the centuries there has certainly been plenty of spiritual activity around these parts.
(02:08):
So,
last year I decided to start walking this piece of land barefoot,
just to try and find out what my own connection to it might be.
To be honest,
I wasn't expecting much – bit of a laugh really,
but looking back it proved more significant than I could ever have imagined.
(02:28):
[SMALL THUD IN THE GRASS]So on one of these walks there's a third and something hits the ground right beside me.
A pine cone has dropped from a tree at the edge of a copse.
Well,
no surprises there.
That's kind of what pine trees DO. I pick it up And unusually when I look at the tree,
I feel drawn to put my hands on the trunk,
(02:49):
but everything's so overgrown I'm going to have to go around the other side and here I find - The Grove.
Like discovering Narnia, I realised that pine and its neighbor are making a doorway into two concentric rings of trees.
(03:10):
I've been here a hundred times,
but I've never seen THIS before.
There's an inner ring where the trees are set exactly two paces apart,
definitely planted that way.
And even if this grove was nothing more than a bit of landscaping,
it's somehow easy to imagine it having a spiritual connection or being used again.
(03:31):
I mean I'D come here,
It's really peaceful!
But of course that poses a question,
What do you actually do with a sacred grove?
[OFFICE SOUNDS]So a short while later I'm back at my desk and I'm wondering who knows about that kind of thing.
Let's try Google... [KEYBOARD TYPING SOUNDS] 'Sacred Grove Management.'
(03:57):
No,
nothing there.
[KEYBOARD TYPING SOUNDS]'Groves for Dummies'?,
nope.
there's only one answer,
of course.
Druids!
I need to know what ThEY know.
Something else I didn't know was that I just had my first lesson in Druidry.
(04:21):
I walked this land for 30 years but totally failed to see something obvious that was right there in front of my eyes.
And I found out much later that this sums up druidry better than anything else.
At its heart, it's really just a search for the unseen,
the inner world of Spirit,
the energies which Druids call Nwyfre (Nwee-fray) and Awen. (Arr-wen)
(04:45):
And when we touch that hidden world,
when our fingers are actually allowed to push through that veil and we find it tearing apart for us,
the world we thought we knew is forever changed.
I went into those bushes looking for a pine tree,
but I came out having discovered a new aspect of me,
a person who like my Grove had been hidden in plain sightand the more I learned about Modern Druidry and also the Bardic Path which is closely linked with it,
(05:15):
The more I realized that for virtually the whole of my life,
I've been living the druid way without even knowing. In this podcast,
I'm going to share my take on some of those ideas,
beliefs and practices. And to help me,
I've brought along my little sister Elizabeth,
who I've always suspected was born to be a Bard – or is it a Bard-ette?
(05:38):
Anyway,
living in Wales.
She's pretty clued up about Druids too.
Like me,
she's been doing the spiritual thing since we were kids We're beginning this journey with two voices,
Two instruments,and our traveling bags filled with experiences and we'll be following the whisper of that mystical force,
Awen,
(06:00):
the creative inspiration of the universe.
SONG - WALK THE LAND[ELIZABETH SINGING] Oh walk the land And hear my story And prepare ythe soil of your heart for seed, Time is shot And the Earth is calling And if change you seek Then Changed you must be.
(06:27):
[SOUNDS OF COFFEE CUPS CHINKING] [MICHAEL]: So Elizabeth Wales is druid land,
isn't it? It's like Bard Central
and I guess that singing in spirituality and nature kind of all goes together over there,
(06:51):
doesn't it?
[ELIZABETH] (06:51):
It's the land of song.
I am for sure the language is designed to sing,
it softened,
the consonants are softened so that the sentences flow and they sing-song up and down.
So I think there must be that deeper kind of understanding of singing and singing collectively and of course the folk singing and religious revivals,
(07:19):
Druidry, connection with nature, spirituality.
There isn't,
its underlying,
they're even still because it comes through in the music,
the song,
the feeling,
the softness,
the heartful-ness that you can feel when you're in Wales.
[MICHAEL] (07:38):
So all of this began with me prancing around the countryside barefoot because I somehow got the idea that it would connect me walk more with the earth.
It occurred to me that you often do the barefoot thing,
don't you?
When you sing
And I thought,
does that actually help you to sing more 'spiritually', doing that?
[ELIZABETH] (07:58):
You're asking me questions I've not thought of!
but actually,
yeah,
I tend to take my shoes off when I'm in a space that requires a spiritual connection from me and I would sing without my shoes on for sure.
I might have socks on if it's cold.
What about nail polish that inhibit the energy folw?or do you do them in chakra colors [ELIZABETH]: LAUGHS I'd better experiment.
[MICHAEL]: But my point is this, (08:27):
undefined
we've got a gig coming up in London in a couple of weeks.
And,
I'm going to try playing barefoot, like it's Woodstock or something.
What do you reckon?
Will that make me more spiritual?
[ELIZABETH]: To be honest, (08:43):
undefined
when we get there,
everybody takes their shoes off before we go into the hall,
so you won't be alone!
[MICHAEL] (08:50):
It would be curmudgeonly not to,
We need gigs in places with under-floor heating.
If any promoters are listening.
If you're going to book a druid or a bard... [MUSIC SIGNIFIES NEW SECTION]
A week after my discovery and I've been hard at work researching Druids,
(09:13):
I actually have a picture growing in my mind now of what they're about and it all seems pretty relevant,
particularly the environmental side and I'm also imagining a few druid doings going on inside that circle of trees I found – probably with bare feet.
I wonder what the trees will make of a rookie Gandalf tripping about the place,
(09:34):
but on the other hand I didn't exactly crash this party,
did I?
I was invited to the grove by that pine cone, sitting on my desk and slowly opening up in the warmth of the room.
I think that proves I'm on the guest list now.
Now you might be wondering why I'm getting so excited about all of this.
But there is something you don't know yet.
(09:55):
Just at the time I stumbled across the grove,
I was looking for something to reboot my spiritual life a bit now.
Most of the time,
spiritual awakening happens piece by piece throughout our lives.
You open up slowly,
much like the pine cones doing on the desk,
but occasionally you get that road to Damascus energy bomb when some realization knocks on the door and you suddenly have to reevaluate everything! And that's what I'm looking for now.
(10:27):
I actually want the Chuck Norris of spiritual experiences And that might be setting the bar pretty high,
but I think the universe can handle it and that's why I'm so excited because who knows the discovery of this grove might just have come along at the right time.
Maybe it's part of some big awakening answer.
(10:48):
What I do know is that my pine cone certainly fits in with something else.
I'm doing – nothing to do with druids,
at least I thought it wasn't [SITAR MUSIC] It so happens that right at this time my little sister has persuaded me to go to a Shibir,
which is a gathering.
(11:08):
It's actually seven days with a guru from Gujarat that she knows, a guy I met a few years ago.
It's designed to awaken you a bit more spiritually.
You know,
tickle your third eye and all that kind of stuff.
Speaking of which as I'm doing my research,
I make a discovery. The pine cone and the pine tree get their names from the latin pioneer,
(11:32):
the words from which we get pineal gland.
Well,
in some metaphysical circles,
the pineal gland is associated with the Ajna chakra,
better known as the Third Eye!
In fact,
to some people,
the pine cone is a symbol of spiritual awakening.
Like the pine cone on my desk that's looking up at me smugly as I'm recording this.
(11:55):
You know,
the one that dropped right at my feet.
What was it that guy on the A-Team used to say?
you know,
'I love it when strands come together',?
Or something like that.
Anyway,
but I am beginning to think that that pine tree had a hidden agenda.
SONG (12:13):
BLACK PINE [ELIZABETH SINGING] Bring me a cone from the black pine tree That I may the future see O bring me a cone from the black pine tree And I will be yours And I will be more if you Bring me a cone from the black pine tree And ever my lover you’ll be O sing me the song of the black pine tree Climb to her nest Hear the lay of the forest and Listen my heart, Sing it back to me And ever my lover you’ll be Now open the cone of the black pine tree Bring it to birth in the heat of the hearth Scatter the seed to the winds for me That I may the future see I heard the call of the black pine tree To a lonelier road harder to see, But more wicked than wise was her augery
[MICHAEL]: Elizabeth and I will be back on April 4 when our new series starts. So as you don't miss it, (14:34):
undefined
why not hit follow now and for some really good karma,
you could give us five stars on apple.
You'll always find links to our sites and social and music in the show notes until then stay safe and Just Druid! [OUTRO MUSIC]
I'm Michael Sebastian and over the years I've explored many spiritual paths.
But it was a strange encounter that started my journey on.
maybe the oldest of all – the path of the Druid!
(00:46):
[BIRDSONG]It's an early summer morning.
The grass here is soaking and I'm avoiding the stinging nettles with my bare feet.
I'm in the Cotswold Hills in the west of England and I brought you here to share my Druid's Tale – because it all began here, when I was invited on a mystic journey – by a pine tree!
yep,
(01:07):
you heard that right.
[SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS IN THE GRASS]I've walked across this patch of land for years and it's always felt incredibly familiar to me,
almost like I had some past life here.
If I did,
I doubt the place has changed that much.
The local village,
I can see down there in the valley was featured in the Domesday Dook.
I can see a tithe barn,
(01:27):
there's miner's cottages, and the hills are sliced by sheep tracks with high stone walls called 'drungways'.
There's a spiritual history around here too.
Within thirty miles you'll find burial sites,
Long Barrows,
the great stone circles of Avebury and Stonehenge; and of course Glastonbury,
(01:48):
the isle of Avalon! And 30 miles over there to the west.
Well,
basically,
you've got the whole of Wales,
which is fairly drenched in Druidry,
Now,
I'm not saying these hills are alive with the sound of Druids,
but over the centuries there has certainly been plenty of spiritual activity around these parts.
(02:08):
So,
last year I decided to start walking this piece of land barefoot,
just to try and find out what my own connection to it might be.
To be honest,
I wasn't expecting much – bit of a laugh really,
but looking back it proved more significant than I could ever have imagined.
(02:28):
[SMALL THUD IN THE GRASS]So on one of these walks there's a third and something hits the ground right beside me.
A pine cone has dropped from a tree at the edge of a copse.
Well,
no surprises there.
That's kind of what pine trees DO. I pick it up And unusually when I look at the tree,
I feel drawn to put my hands on the trunk,
(02:49):
but everything's so overgrown I'm going to have to go around the other side and here I find - The Grove.
Like discovering Narnia, I realised that pine and its neighbor are making a doorway into two concentric rings of trees.
(03:10):
I've been here a hundred times,
but I've never seen THIS before.
There's an inner ring where the trees are set exactly two paces apart,
definitely planted that way.
And even if this grove was nothing more than a bit of landscaping,
it's somehow easy to imagine it having a spiritual connection or being used again.
(03:31):
I mean I'D come here,
It's really peaceful!
But of course that poses a question,
What do you actually do with a sacred grove?
[OFFICE SOUNDS]So a short while later I'm back at my desk and I'm wondering who knows about that kind of thing.
Let's try Google... [KEYBOARD TYPING SOUNDS] 'Sacred Grove Management.'
(03:57):
No,
nothing there.
[KEYBOARD TYPING SOUNDS]'Groves for Dummies'?,
nope.
there's only one answer,
of course.
Druids!
I need to know what ThEY know.
Something else I didn't know was that I just had my first lesson in Druidry.
(04:21):
I walked this land for 30 years but totally failed to see something obvious that was right there in front of my eyes.
And I found out much later that this sums up druidry better than anything else.
At its heart, it's really just a search for the unseen,
the inner world of Spirit,
the energies which Druids call Nwyfre (Nwee-fray) and Awen. (Arr-wen)
(04:45):
And when we touch that hidden world,
when our fingers are actually allowed to push through that veil and we find it tearing apart for us,
the world we thought we knew is forever changed.
I went into those bushes looking for a pine tree,
but I came out having discovered a new aspect of me,
a person who like my Grove had been hidden in plain sightand the more I learned about Modern Druidry and also the Bardic Path which is closely linked with it,
(05:15):
The more I realized that for virtually the whole of my life,
I've been living the druid way without even knowing. In this podcast,
I'm going to share my take on some of those ideas,
beliefs and practices. And to help me,
I've brought along my little sister Elizabeth,
who I've always suspected was born to be a Bard – or is it a Bard-ette?
(05:38):
Anyway,
living in Wales.
She's pretty clued up about Druids too.
Like me,
she's been doing the spiritual thing since we were kids We're beginning this journey with two voices,
Two instruments,and our traveling bags filled with experiences and we'll be following the whisper of that mystical force,
Awen,
(06:00):
the creative inspiration of the universe.
SONG - WALK THE LAND[ELIZABETH SINGING] Oh walk the land And hear my story And prepare ythe soil of your heart for seed, Time is shot And the Earth is calling And if change you seek Then Changed you must be.
(06:27):
[SOUNDS OF COFFEE CUPS CHINKING] [MICHAEL]: So Elizabeth Wales is druid land,
isn't it? It's like Bard Central
and I guess that singing in spirituality and nature kind of all goes together over there,
(06:51):
doesn't it?
[ELIZABETH] (06:51):
It's the land of song.
I am for sure the language is designed to sing,
it softened,
the consonants are softened so that the sentences flow and they sing-song up and down.
So I think there must be that deeper kind of understanding of singing and singing collectively and of course the folk singing and religious revivals,
(07:19):
Druidry, connection with nature, spirituality.
There isn't,
its underlying,
they're even still because it comes through in the music,
the song,
the feeling,
the softness,
the heartful-ness that you can feel when you're in Wales.
[MICHAEL] (07:38):
So all of this began with me prancing around the countryside barefoot because I somehow got the idea that it would connect me walk more with the earth.
It occurred to me that you often do the barefoot thing,
don't you?
When you sing
And I thought,
does that actually help you to sing more 'spiritually', doing that?
[ELIZABETH] (07:58):
You're asking me questions I've not thought of!
but actually,
yeah,
I tend to take my shoes off when I'm in a space that requires a spiritual connection from me and I would sing without my shoes on for sure.
I might have socks on if it's cold.
What about nail polish that inhibit the energy folw?or do you do them in chakra colors [ELIZABETH]: LAUGHS I'd better experiment.
[MICHAEL]: But my point is this, (08:27):
undefined
we've got a gig coming up in London in a couple of weeks.
And,
I'm going to try playing barefoot, like it's Woodstock or something.
What do you reckon?
Will that make me more spiritual?
[ELIZABETH]: To be honest, (08:43):
undefined
when we get there,
everybody takes their shoes off before we go into the hall,
so you won't be alone!
[MICHAEL] (08:50):
It would be curmudgeonly not to,
We need gigs in places with under-floor heating.
If any promoters are listening.
If you're going to book a druid or a bard... [MUSIC SIGNIFIES NEW SECTION]
A week after my discovery and I've been hard at work researching Druids,
(09:13):
I actually have a picture growing in my mind now of what they're about and it all seems pretty relevant,
particularly the environmental side and I'm also imagining a few druid doings going on inside that circle of trees I found – probably with bare feet.
I wonder what the trees will make of a rookie Gandalf tripping about the place,
(09:34):
but on the other hand I didn't exactly crash this party,
did I?
I was invited to the grove by that pine cone, sitting on my desk and slowly opening up in the warmth of the room.
I think that proves I'm on the guest list now.
Now you might be wondering why I'm getting so excited about all of this.
But there is something you don't know yet.
(09:55):
Just at the time I stumbled across the grove,
I was looking for something to reboot my spiritual life a bit now.
Most of the time,
spiritual awakening happens piece by piece throughout our lives.
You open up slowly,
much like the pine cones doing on the desk,
but occasionally you get that road to Damascus energy bomb when some realization knocks on the door and you suddenly have to reevaluate everything! And that's what I'm looking for now.
(10:27):
I actually want the Chuck Norris of spiritual experiences And that might be setting the bar pretty high,
but I think the universe can handle it and that's why I'm so excited because who knows the discovery of this grove might just have come along at the right time.
Maybe it's part of some big awakening answer.
(10:48):
What I do know is that my pine cone certainly fits in with something else.
I'm doing – nothing to do with druids,
at least I thought it wasn't [SITAR MUSIC] It so happens that right at this time my little sister has persuaded me to go to a Shibir,
which is a gathering.
(11:08):
It's actually seven days with a guru from Gujarat that she knows, a guy I met a few years ago.
It's designed to awaken you a bit more spiritually.
You know,
tickle your third eye and all that kind of stuff.
Speaking of which as I'm doing my research,
I make a discovery. The pine cone and the pine tree get their names from the latin pioneer,
(11:32):
the words from which we get pineal gland.
Well,
in some metaphysical circles,
the pineal gland is associated with the Ajna chakra,
better known as the Third Eye!
In fact,
to some people,
the pine cone is a symbol of spiritual awakening.
Like the pine cone on my desk that's looking up at me smugly as I'm recording this.
(11:55):
You know,
the one that dropped right at my feet.
What was it that guy on the A-Team used to say?
you know,
'I love it when strands come together',?
Or something like that.
Anyway,
but I am beginning to think that that pine tree had a hidden agenda.
SONG (12:13):
BLACK PINE [ELIZABETH SINGING] Bring me a cone from the black pine tree That I may the future see O bring me a cone from the black pine tree And I will be yours And I will be more if you Bring me a cone from the black pine tree And ever my lover you’ll be O sing me the song of the black pine tree Climb to her nest Hear the lay of the forest and Listen my heart, Sing it back to me And ever my lover you’ll be Now open the cone of the black pine tree Bring it to birth in the heat of the hearth Scatter the seed to the winds for me That I may the future see I heard the call of the black pine tree To a lonelier road harder to see, But more wicked than wise was her augery
[MICHAEL]: Elizabeth and I will be back on April 4 when our new series starts. So as you don't miss it, (14:34):
undefined
why not hit follow now and for some really good karma,
you could give us five stars on apple.
You'll always find links to our sites and social and music in the show notes until then stay safe and Just Druid! [OUTRO MUSIC]
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