Art and Spirit: The Bardic Arts as Self Development and Spiritual Practice

The Druid's Garden

“The way to see what looks good and understand the reasons it looks good, and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.”

–Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values.

In the last two months, through various angles, we have explored ways of taking up the path of the bard, one of the three paths of the druid tradition. Topics have included the cultivation and flow of awen, cultural challenges surrounding taking up the path of the bard, and tips for how to cultivate the bardic arts. In my last post, we also explored some of what industralization had us lose in terms of the bardic arts–both to those who create them and those who use them and how we might…

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Woodpecker Woman

Inner Child Healing helps prepare for real Soul Retrieval Work

The Mayans

Ozark Encyclopedia – F – Fish

Ozark Encyclopedia – F – Feathers

Embracing the Bardic Arts: A History of Making Fine Things

The Druid's Garden

One of the changes that humans have experienced with the rise of industrialization, and more recently, consumerism, is a shift away from creating our own lovingly crafted objects, objects created with precision, skill, high-quality materials, and care and into using things that instead are made by far away people and machines. I wrote a little bit about this before in a post on wood. In speaking of the 17th century, Eric Sloane writes in the Reverence of Wood:

“In 1765, everything a man owned was made more valuable by the fact that he had made it himself or knew exactly where it had come. This is not so remarkable as it sounds; it is less strange that the eighteenth-century man should have a richer and keener enjoyment of life through knowledge than that the twentieth-century man should lead an arid and empty existence in the midst of wealth and…

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Ozark Encyclopedia – E – Eggs

ECHOES OF THE ANCESTORS: ABALONE SHELL

Good Witches Homestead

Abalone strengthens the structure of the body and the functions of the heart chakra. Increased emotional expression and a strengthening of the immune system can also be expected. As well abalone encourages individuality and expansion.

Energy: sensitive, family-oriented

Uses: Abalone is especially useful for handling and calming emotional situations. Having abalone nearby when working through an emotional situation with someone is said to be soothing, and promotes cooperation. Mystical lore suggests that abalone is helpful for arthritis and other joint disorders, muscle problems, the heart, and digestion.

Star Sign: Cancer
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Chakra: Throat