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Celtic Shamanism  Celtic Shamanism draws its energetic force from the roots of
Celtic spirituality. A shaman is at one with the land and it is easier to forge
a connection with the land you were born from. It is harder to connect with a
distant land, possible, but much harder. It can be difficult to connect to
animals and plants for example which are not familiar to your own natural
environment. Even though energetically we are all connected and there are no
such things as time or distance in a universal sense, unless you are
exceptional at visualisation it can be challenging when you don’t have that
physical connection, that special magnetic bond with your own land.
The way of the Shaman is a natural form of living and working in a very connected way to all living things. The word Shaman comes from the Tungus people of Siberia and means one who knows. The Shaman is one who seeks to connect to all things, often called the walker between worlds; someone who seeks harmony in both the physical and the spiritual. In this system, which is a very loose free form set of beliefs and practices, which vary from person to person, it is viewed that all things are alive and are connected. Everything around us; animals, trees, plants, rocks, stones, fish, insects, people and the very land itself each being in possession of a soul or spirit and none being more important than the other and all having their place within the overall harmony of the web of life. Those who practice Shamanic techniques in one form or another are to be found the world over. Most countries have their own form of Shamanic belief. Many Shamans travel and because of this learn from others on their journeys and so the path of the Shaman is by nature is essentially an eclectic one. Shamanism is a healing path and one of service to all. Druidry Druidry is something which is as simple or as complicated as anyone could wish for. It is many things to many people. It is a spirituality associated with the living land and as such is by nature fluid and changing like the seasons. Ask a dozen druids, what they believe and unless you’re very lucky, you will find many different answers. The beauty of druidry, is that none of those answers will be wrong and all will be right, not for everyone, but for those who walk the path of that particular truth. Druidism, which is another word for Druidry, is concerned with walking a path in-tune with nature and the universe. It is about walking away from the fast food, fast pace lifestyle which has taken people far away from the reality of a life lived well and has replaced it with more speed, less time and no thought for the environment or the other living creatures who share our world with us. At one level Druidry is about being environmentally aware. It is about walking your talk, not just imagining a new utopia, but about working toward such a reality. At another level Druidry is about learning from the past and using that knowledge and wisdom to build a better stronger future. Some find in Druidry a perfect spiritual practice, still others link it to other spiritual or religious practices or believe systems. The beauty of Druidry is that it makes a perfect foundation on which to build a spiritually enriched life. As a lifestyle it cultivates an environmental awareness which unites people on a global scale. There are many different Druid Orders and each has their own ideas of what Druidry is to them and there are just as many individual Druids, sometimes called Hedgedruids, who belong to no Order and enjoy their own style of Druidry, without any restrictions. What do Druids believe? This is impossible to answer. There are Druids who are Witches, some Wiccans, but not all. Most Druids are Pagans, but not all, there are Christian Druids, Hindu Druids and even Buddhist Druids. Druidry is less a belief system and more a spiritual awareness. It is an awareness that the way the modern world functions is flawed. It is an inner knowing, a wake up call, if you will, a call to break free of our self-inflicted money mind set, our time clock stopwatch self-imposed slavery and to unite instead under a new banner, one of equality and love and more than this one of service to others. For when we serve another, we serve our self.
I'm a member of The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids (OBOD) The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids is a spiritual group dedicated to practising, teaching, and developing Druidry as a valuable and inspiring spirituality. Membership of the Order is open to followers of all faiths and none, regardless of gender, sexual orientation or ethnic origin, and there are currently over eight thousand members in fifty countries. The order was founded in 1964 by Ross Nichols who was Chairman of the Ancient Druid Order which traces its lineage to a meeting at the Apple Tree Tavern in Covent Garden, London, in 1717. This of course gives a good lineage considering it is a modern revival of an ancient pool of knowledge.
The Prince's Rainforests Project 
Background Tropical rainforests absorb nearly a fifth of all man-made CO2 emissions around the world, which helps greatly to minimise the effects of climate change. However, these same rainforests are currently being destroyed at the rate of an area the size of a football pitch every four seconds. To make matters worse, when the rainforests are burnt down - to clear land for commercial farming or mining, for example - they release all the CO2 that they have stored back into the atmosphere. The alarming scale of this rapid burning of the rainforests around the world means that CO2 emissions from tropical deforestation are actually higher than from the entire global transport sector. Introduction to The Prince's Rainforests Project The Prince's Rainforests Project (PRP) was set up in 2007 by HRH The Prince of Wales following reports from leading climate change experts, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to promote awareness of the urgent need to take action against tropical deforestation. The Prince of Wales has long been concerned about climate change and about how destruction of the world's rainforests contributes to rising temperatures and sea levels. We are working with governments, businesses and non-profit organisations around the world to find solutions to deforestation - and to find them fast - with the ambition of ‘making the trees worth more alive than dead'. "If deforestation can be stopped in its tracks, then we will be able to buy ourselves some much-needed time to build the low carbon economies on which our futures depend. I have endeavoured to create a global public, private and NGO partnership to discover an innovative means of halting tropical deforestation. Success would literally transform the situation for our children and grandchildren and for every species on the planet." - HRH The Prince of Wales Objectives The PRP's work is focused on two very specific aims. The first is to raise awareness of the damaging effects of deforestation for everyone. The second is to identify appropriate incentives that will encourage rainforest nations to stop burning down vast areas of valuable forests. Raising awareness Destruction of the rainforests has very real and very serious consequences for us all - today and tomorrow. The PRP has launched a global awareness campaign to improve understanding of the link between rainforests and climate change and the need for urgent action to stop deforestation. So do your bit and sign up to show your support today! It only takes a moment to help us to spread the message around the world... Identifying incentives to stop deforestation Since the Project was set up, we have worked hard to understand the economic reasons for deforestation in rainforest nations. We wanted to find a fair and effective way to encourage rainforest nations to protect, rather than destroy, their forests - and to identify ways to fund that approach. In particular, we have identified the need for an Emergency Package of funding for rainforest nations to help protect their rainforests and motivate them to move away from deforestation in favour of more environmentally friendly economic development activity. On 1st April 2009, The Prince of Wales hosted an historic meeting of world leaders on forests and climate change, at which it was agreed an international Working Group would be formed to examine this Emergency Package proposal. |
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