Slade from ‘Shift your Spirits’ has ‘tagged’ me with this question and I’ll try my best to answer. If you’ve never visited his site you should go there straight away as him and Jeff Lilly at DruidJournal.net (another must read) are my inspirations to use this medium and the rewards so far have been great.
I’m honoured to be the next in line as the three previous authors are excellent examples as online authors and I’m sure that you’ll find much of interest at all three – just follow the links on my Blogroll. Shift your Spirits, Druid Journal and Adams Peace.
This has also come at a very good time for me as this is my tenth post, and the realisation of a personal target. A few days ago I didn’t know I had this much inside me trying to get out but I’m now seeing that I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface.
To answer the question.
A Bard in ancient Celtic society was the first of three stages in becoming a Druid, but they were highly regarded within their own right and never seen as inferior to the Vates and Druids.
The primary objective of the Bard was to inspire creativity in themselves and others, they believed that through this creativity they could awaken spiritual abilities and access other realities through the power of ‘the Word’ – story telling, poetry, song, and retaining the genealogy of the ancestors.
The word whether it is spoken or written is a strong force and can produce an energy all of its own. You have experienced this power yourself many times through insults, praise, a good book or an inspired piece of poetry, love letters, hate mail, quotes and thought provoking articles.
Through the development of their art the Bards searched the length and breadth of consciousness in their personal quest for inspiration. This in itself led them to discover and connect with a great inner spiritual power.
I’m sure this must connect with you on many levels and the meaning is even more relevant in today’s society as many of us have become distanced from our creative side and the system of education directs and trains us to utilise our mind not our souls.
This may empower our intellect but our soul feels undeveloped and undernourished. The constant craving leaves us with a feeling that something is missing, that we are not whole in some way and that we need more than just food (earth), drink (water) and to breath (air).
This too corresponds with the beliefs of the ancient Celts in that to be whole we are made up of earth, air, water, and fire. Fire was symbolic of inspiration and intuition – the missing piece that we all seek.
This all relates to the here and now.
Today we may call that creative energy many things – Spirit, the Light, Chi, Qi, Ki, Gaia or even ‘the Force’ but in the ancient Bardic world this was known as AWEN which translates as flowing spirit.
My belief is that the sense of loss that is felt by many is that we have come adrift from the earth, from nature, from AWEN. To regain this connection we need to tap in by exploring our creativity and sharing with others in the hope that they to will be inspired to connect in whatever way they feel.
The challenge is to see through the constraints of conformity, if only for a fleeting instance, and to break through and embrace the feminine side; our creativity and inspiration.
My journey has recently taken me onto the Druidic path and part of my development was to embrace my creativity and skills in the written word. I didn’t really realise that until I began to write this post so thanks to Slade for tagging me and through answering the question of ‘Why do I Blog?’ I’ve realised another stage in my own journey.
Take care and nurture the Bard in yourself.
6 comments:
First I need to find the bard in myself first! :)
This promises to be a great blog. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the tag, but somebody beat you to the punch. I wrote my "Why Do I Blog?" post a couple weeks ago.
Sania,
Many thanks for the kind words.
Having visited your site, and read about your background it really is a honour that you've found a connection with my writing.
Damian
Damian,
Jeff and I were having a conversation "behind the screens" (email) about Abundance - which prompted me to re-run an older article that hadn't been available on Shift Your Spirits:
If Money Was A Person, Who Would Money Be?
What's interesting about the synchronicity between that post and this Why I Blog tag/ meme is that Jeff and I both experienced very similar dialogues with Abundance - revolving around this idea of connecting with and giving voice to the Bard.
My epiphany regarding my relationship with Money / Abundance / Value is that the one thing I have to give of great unique value - that transcends the physical, material expressions of that value - are my Words. My Stories.
There is a Courage required to share publicly, but I truly believe that publishing IS Spiritual.
Blogging is about What you have to give away.
The benefits that can follow that energy take many forms - the majority of them are greater than what we assume or expect.
When you put that thread out into the world, and others connect to it, it becomes part of a web of consciousness - the Web is a virtual, technological expression of those intangible things.
Ideas are manifested before their physical forms.
Thoughts are things; words are their handles.
This is a brilliant outline of the role of the Bard. I really enjoyed reading it, thank you! x
I never realized you were following the druidic path - I always thought you were a freemason...but then freemasonry isn't a spiritual path in itself right? Come to think of it, your name did gave it away...EnglishBard.
Oi, I'm confused now ;)
BTW; I'll try to do your 'sharing the lesson' thing, but I need a lot of time to think about it [and we all know that thinking is quite a difficult task for me ;)]
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