Category Archives: Power Animal

What’s in a name?

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We are all given name’s by our parents. Some of us like these names, others would really have preferred their parents had been a little more inspired, but these are the names we grow up with.

My given name is David Smith. You couldn’t get more ordinary than that. I was going to be called Philip Ian Smith, until my parents realised that every time I was asked to initial something I would be writing PIS. I’ve got to say I’m thankful for that forethought!

My middle name is Martyn. I really like that name and for a while thought of doing as many others have done and using my middle name as my first, becoming Martyn Smith, but I didn’t do that in the end. Middle names are often people our parents name us after. Sometimes one of the parents, or a Grandparent, or favourite actor/musician/footballer. I was named after Old Man Martyn, a plant nursery owner from the village we lived in in Devoran, Cornwall. He gave my Dad his first proper job, so my parents honoured him in me. I like that story.

I also like David. As a child you can be David, a teenager/youth/man Dave, then in older age back to David again. Smith, although I was called Smugger by some at school (which I hated), I’ve also learned to love, realising that there is a magical and respected ancestry within it. Were my ancestors Blacksmiths? Goldsmiths? Silversmiths? I don’t know, but somewhere in my past I had an ancestor named xxxxx the Smith, and I like that, a lot.

So we have our given names. Then we somehow obtain nicknames. I had a few at school but none stuck for long. Angus was one due to my obsession with AC/DC and I like that one, but it didn’t last long.

stag2

In Pagan circles many people take different names. Some public, others secret, only used in magical space. I found the name Damh quite easily. I was open to the idea of a Pagan name and one day I bought a copy of the Druid Animal Oracle by Philip and Stephanie Carr–Gomm. Now the image of the stag and Herne have always deeply moved me so when I found the stag card with it’s Gealic name, Damh (pronounced Darv) I realised I’d found my name. The thing is Darv/Damh is so close to ‘Dave’ as to be almost interchangeable. So I took the name of my Power Animal, the stag, yet kept the link with my given name too. Perfect.

Damh the Bard was born.

Over the years I have also had a few magical names that I have only ever used within the privacy of my Druid Grove. These names changed as my life-flow changed. For instance, when I needed to feel freedom the Seagull came to me, and for a very difficult period of my life I took one of the names of the Gull as my magical name, as the bird taught me to fly free, to survive. When I had learnt that lesson the animal left me, and I gave up the name. Similar things have happened at other times, when I needed the energy of a particular animal/God to walk very closely with me. Taking a magical name has a deep and real effect on our lives.

Some people scoff at some of the names people take within the Pagan community. I try not to. If somehow the Path has led a person to take the name Raven Morrighan (if a Raven Morrighan is reading this, I’m not referring to you by the way), so be it. Having lived with the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, consequences of taking a magical name I just always hope that they have done their homework and deeply considered the name, before taking it as a mantle.

Words and names are powerful things.

What’s in a name? If you take one, you will see.

Twa Corbies on video

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I love to see what people do with my songs and recordings on video and I was recently sent the links to two versions of the classic folk song Twa Corbies that I recorded on my album Tales from the Crow Man. If you like Ravens you’re going to love them. Enjoy!

Gods in Human Form

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uff_horse302For thousands of years Gods weren’t in human form. Then they seem to have been combined with animals, and then finally became completely human. I think it is our way of trying to understand both them, and our place in the world.

Our more recent myths are very human, with the Gods in actual human form, even though they retain some very Otherworldly attributes. But these are held within myth, and to me the myth is the conduit for a hidden message, not a tale to be taken literally.

So Rhiannon in her story is a woman from Annwn, who rides a strange horse, marries Pwyll, her son is taken, and she is blamed, she is sentenced to carry people on her back, then the child is returned on the night of Beltane when a great monster keeps stealing young horses, and the story continues. The story is entertaining, it is enthralling, and memorable, and tells of a great Goddess, but I don’t think she really married Pwyll, or did any of those things as a human, but the story does tell of the nature of the Horse, of the Spirit of that animal, of the Spirit called Rhiannon.

Gwydion is a git in the myths, but without him nothing would change, the tale and message would stop, so in the myth Gwydion represents Chaos, the causer of change, which is difficult, often unwanted, but also often the bringer of new thoughts, ideas, direction.

Great forces, great powers with their own intelligence, given human form in an effort to understand them. IMO that is.

The Shitehawk, the Slug and the Stag

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Power animals.

Totems.

Obviously Native American, but if we look for evidence of tribal totemism within ancient British society it is there, and now within modern Paganism many people have been called by the power of certain beasts to take them as inspiration to be better, stronger – to absorb the essence of that animal into their own being. For me it was the Stag, Damh. I’ve always been in awe of the Deer – their grace, their power. The Red Deer is our largest mammal here in the UK, and there is no denying why the word Stag in some cultures literally means The Animal. It is probable that our relationship with the Deer was very much like that of other tribal cultures who rely on the movements and availability of Reindeer. Not just for food, but for clothes, shelter, you name it.

gull.jpegThen about 8 years ago a new totem entered my life and for a while I thought it would take over from Damh. It was the Seagull, the Shitehawk. To me they represented freedom. They were the Stags of the Air. My song Learning to Fly from Herne’s Apprentice documents this time of my life perfectly. Just like the Rat, they get a bad rap, but they are the ultimate survivors, and fiercely independent. I’ve seen these birds learn behaviour from other birds that, for a seabird, would be completely unnatural, but they do it anyway. That was the kind of energy I needed at the time, and there it was, in the form of the Gull.

I still love the Gull now. I find their call wonderful, and it always reminds me of my County of birth, Cornwall. It’s also quite a coincidence (whatever that is, I’m still not sure!) that my local football team is The Seagulls! But although the Gull is still with me, Damh has never left, and still brings me strength, and a somewhat independent nature… between the Gull and the Stag, they look after me to this day.

Which leads me onto another thought. I know a man who had a Donkey as a Totem, and it truly suited him too! And another person I know has a Mole, again it suits him. But I wonder if there is anyone who has a Slug as a Totem beast, or another unusual creature. Is there someone out there who works with the Earthworm as Totem, a truly noble and spiritually under rated being!