The Strength of our Roots help hold the Tree

I’ve heard it said that a tree doesn’t benefit from having its roots dug up, and this is true, but every now and again I feel the need to take stock and look back at what brought me to the Path in the beginning. To make sure that my roots are still secure, as sometimes they do need some kind of repair.

So yesterday I stopped looking forward, and placed my gaze firmly on the past, yet from this present moment. I got out my old Grove Books that I wrote during my studies with the Occult Church Society, and then the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. I read what I’d written for the first time in probably 8 years.It was lovely to read my own words as I set out on this path, a time when I had no idea how my life would change. I hadn’t yet written one Pagan song, so all of it lay unknown, in the future.

One beautiful thing that came from this was a great sense of re-connection, of getting back to my own roots, and it was wonderful. During one of the rituals I wrote that I believed I had met Brighid who had told me that the “source of my poetry and song lay in my own Spirit”. When I asked what that meant She just kept on repeating the same words, over and over again. There were other beautiful messages about the future hidden within the text, and a couple of times I couldn’t help but have to dry away a few tears.

There is a lot of sense in working with the Power of Now, especially if we have a tendency to live in a perceived future when we believe all will be better. But every now and then, and particularly as Samhain approaches, I think it does me good to look back and acknowledge the ancestor of my life today. To water the roots that keep my feet on the Path, and to be able to then take a new step forward, held by my life’s experiences.

4 responses to “The Strength of our Roots help hold the Tree”

  1. Hi Dave – I’ve been doing pretty much the same thing, reading my old rituals etc as I plan this Samhain’s one. I’ve also been decluttering my house, getting rid of things that are no longer relevant or needed. I’ve just taken 10 bin bags of rubbish to the dump and given some stuff to the Hospice Shop. It feels really good and the house is now spacious and tidy. I think this is the perfect time of year to do this, just as our ancestors decided which cattle to keep for the winter and slaughtered the rest. Peace. Kev

  2. Beautiful Dave,
    although on a smaller scale, as I move forward into Ovate grade, only a year to reflect upon, for me the Bardic year has been life changing…./|
    Anita

  3. How lovely to read Damh. With great change upon me, a good change I had looked forward to, I too have been looking back at all that has led me here…and came to realize that, with the wheel turning, we have come to Harvest time, and so we gather the crop of lessons, rituals, joys & sorrows , like leaves of a tree, and Harvest them…..the healthy fruits of our labors are kept to nourish us while the bracken & wither goes to the Great Fire and is burned to ashes that will go in the compost that will feed the seeds we are to plant in spring. We reap all that we have sown and we are molded, ever deeper, into ourselves. The future we can count on the come. Now is called the Present because it is a Gift.

    Samhain Blessings to you!

  4. How lovely to read Damh. With great change upon me, a good change I had looked forward to, I too have been looking back at all that has led me here…and came to realize that, with the wheel turning, we have come to Harvest time, and so we gather the crop of lessons, rituals, joys & sorrows , like leaves of a tree, and Harvest them…..the healthy fruits of our labors are kept to nourish us while the bracken & wither goes to the Great Fire and is burned to ashes that will go in the compost that will feed the seeds we are to plant in spring. We reap all that we have sown and we are molded, ever deeper, into ourselves. The future we can count on the come. Now is called the Present because it is a Gift.

    Samhain Blessings to you!

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