Some Reflections on the Year – 2022

Can it really be almost the middle of December already? It’s hard to believe that another year has nearly been and gone. As I sit here reflecting on the events of 2022 I can see just how much I’ve managed to fit in – the highlight has been getting back in front of audiences I can see and hear again, and I’ve also felt the enthusiasm from those audiences for hearing live music – something that for over a year I’m sure we all missed so much. A couple of concerts really stand out in my mind, and it was so good to actually stay for the full event at the Artemis Gathering, sharing space with my American Bardic Buddy Arthur Hinds. I’d really missed being with magical people.

My monthly streamed House Concerts will continue and I’m still thoroughly enjoying them – they are very different to in-person shows but have their own magic – for instance, I can’t talk to individuals and answer questions during in-person live shows – I love that spontaneous intimacy. It’s a Geminian dream come true.

After I finished The Third Branch I was finally permitted by Spirit to turn my attention to a full music and song album which is coming along well. Seven songs are nearly finished with three or four left to write. It’s still a little early to be sure but I’m aiming to have the new album with you around the Spring Equinox – it might be sooner, might be a little later, but that’s my intention. Every music album reflects the journey I’ve travelled and the things that are happening in my life at the time of writing, and this one is no exception. I have a working title for the album – ‘Thought and Memory‘ – in honour of Odin’s Ravens and their role in those ancient Nordic tales. It feels like they have had a lot to whisper in his ears over the past few years and continue to bring back news.

I’m finding a lot of comfort in the Nordic tales and those myths are deepening my connection to Sussex. If you’re a long-time reader of my blog you will know that I’ve always felt a little divided between the place of my birth, Cornwall, and Sussex, the place I’ve lived for over 40 years. I still adore that land of moor and granite cliffs. I always will. But now I feel very much at home here in Sussex, finally. This has led me to deeply explore the history of this county that was once a Kingdom, way back to before Roman times, the times after they left, and further up to 1066.

It’s really quite a story and one where the slowly revealing truth differs a great deal from what I’d always been told, and so to make a further connection that would lead me through music I bought an Anglo-Saxon Lyre, one based upon the remains of the instrument found in the grave at Sutton Hoo. An instrument whose voice had disappeared for over 1000 years. There were 6 strings on the original, but people have added a 7th for a drone, so I got the 7-string version. I sat down with her and just played some notes, letting her voice guide my fingers. An oh how she sings! I’m in love. And this has now led me to explore getting another ancient instrument – the Tagelharpa. So that means the last three or four songs on the album will hold the voices of these instruments. I haven’t written the title track ‘Thought and Memory‘ yet, but I know, without doubt, that between the Lyre and the Tagelharpa those birds will whisper into my ear, and their story will be sung.

The blog has been a little quieter this year. I’ve been doing a lot of inner work and that, by its very nature, is something that is explored in peace and in solitude, but I can feel that I’m walking out of my cave now, step by step, and I can see the light of the new year glowing very gently beyond the horizon. And with it will come a new album and new adventures.

If I don’t post again, have a blessed Yule and New Year my friends.