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All Hail the Bard!

May 20, 2011 in Gorsedh News

Kali Roberts was chosen to be the sixth Bard of Ynyswitrin on St Dunstan’s day 2011. Tim Hall won the Crown and Oshia Drury was awarded the Tim Sebastion Memorial Trophy in recognition of her musical service to the community. Molly was installed as this year’s Younger Bard.

This means Tony Atkinson now joins the ranks of the Elder Bards. This year we admitted eight new Bards into the Order at the Annual Open Gorsedh ceremony. Thanks to everyone who came and made this such a strong and inspiring event!

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Bardic Council Meeting

January 2, 2012 in Events

Happy New Year to you all.
I don’t know how to work this! It would be good if everyone was sent an e-mail when a new post went on the board. Tim?
Anyway no idea how much people go on this as I don’t myself – although I am hoping to becoem more computer literate in 2012.
We need to set up a Bardic Council meeting asap – Tony, David, Carly, Tim, Nathan, and (unless official meebers have some objection) anyone else with the enthusiasm to organised Bardic College seminars and to help Carly with this year’s Gorsedd.

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Bardic Seminars

October 18, 2011 in Bardism, Events, Gorsedh News

We will be holding a series of Bardic seminars at the Library of Avalon, starting on Tuesday the 8th November at 7pm.

The first session will be an introduction to the Druidic system of colleges and the history of Bardism, led by Dreow Bennett, Archdruid of Glastonbury and Tim Hall, Elder Bard of Gorsedh Ynyswitrin.

Seminars will be held monthly, more or less, featuring various speakers and covering all aspects of Bardic and Druidic lore.

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Night at The Abbey…

July 25, 2011 in Events

They are holding this year’s Night at The Abbey on Friday Sept 9th, 6 – 10pm.
I know it’s a long shot, but does anyone object to me trying to blag an ”area” (or maybe even a tent!) where we can showcase all that is Bardic to an audience that may be pleasingly outside of our usual demographic?

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‪Dearbhaile Bradley ~ Visions of Transition‬‏ – YouTube

July 21, 2011 in Bardism

‪Dearbhaile Bradley ~ Visions of Transition‬‏ – YouTube.

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<< tales from the seven seas >>

July 5, 2011 in Poetry

Taut tomes
And vociferous volumes;
Tall tales
And magnificent epistles.
Each story unfolds
Both to the teller
And the recipient
In so many differing ways
And often,
That which may appear the same
Is so manifold in its manifestations
We would wonder
We were even on the same page…
Yet somehow, undercurrents of sense
And meaning and theme and denouements
Crash from turbulent and tepid tides
At once!
And all along myriad and multiple shores
The message comes in…
Just as it will go out again…
And these various waves
Of size and sound and writhing around
Envelope and succumb sense
And all the senses
To the point where
Losing each self
Means all’s not lost
As the swell will subside…
…Just as the void will rise
Once more.

© Tony Atkinson

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<< fathom deep >>

July 5, 2011 in Poetry

Spirits of all ancestors
Close kin and random impostors
Draw me in with bidding words
That i may see birds’ wings unfurl
With grace and without recourse
To pleasing others’ feasts or thoughts

The freedom of abandonment
No more entrapped, soon resonant
With all the music of their song
And rhythmic wings to time the throng
Full fair are all the heralds here
And equal in opposite hemispheres

The sky and sea and firmament
Know only nature’s government
And hold that earth is a mother to
All living entities, one by two
Who have the wit to fit right in
And further only the nourishing

Of every equal extant tick
Which makes the hearth majestic
In the whole more than parts
The earth again finds many hearts
Make up the total of single core
And lean to less to fathom more.

© Tony Atkinson

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Dearbhaile Bradley ~ Visions of Transition

July 2, 2011 in Bardism

I’m posting this up on behalf of Dearbhaile, check it out:

The stories we tell ourselves at this crucial time are vital to making
the transformation we need to make to living sustainably on the planet.
This selection is from a longer showcase of inspirational poems and
stories that present my perspective on how we can manage the changes.

dearbhaile.co.uk

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<< MIND >>

June 13, 2011 in Poetry

Mind

You don’t hurt it

By doing in your brain

Lessed you should stress

Over

 

Slow-ing

Flowing flowing

S-low-ing

Flowingflowingflowing

Sl…

 

Owing

For all your life

Someone, something, summing

Up whole selves till

(nothing)

 

Gro-Wing

Showing sHOWing

GRRRR-Owing!

SHOWING! SHOWING! SHOWING!

(Shh)…

 

Over

And above duty

When ALL has become STILL

(Must be out of your)

Mind.

 

© Tony Atkinson, 2010

 

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Solstice Fire

June 13, 2011 in Prose

Solstice Fire

 

In deep waters of solstice

beneath the sun’s fire

you will bathe

 

Between lake velvet surface

and epiphany of sky

lay yourself wide,

like a calm sacrifice

float so precisely between worlds

on the hairline crack of

crepuscular dusk and star shattered night.

Our lady of the lake

will tend your flame

on this day of alchemical light.

 

Who will bathe with her?

Who will bathe with her?

You who wander barefoot, lonely;

wayfarers of Life’s innner sanctum

You who traverse the furthermost shores

of soul that won’t sleep

heart that won’t die

rising and fading with midsummer sun,

leaving and returing with the

turning of the wheel.

Step bone naked into her waters

lagoon blue and virginal

bathe until splayed

to love’s tender cosmology

and the scrutiny of stars

 

As her burning sun,  globe of white-fire

hits the water, alchemising the deep

bathe and submurge in the sweet elixier

newborn emerge

baptised of face

And sing in new worlds,

dream lost horizons

cultivate this harvest of light -

paradise regained!

wholeness reclaimed!

The birth of the searchless,

the fruit of our earth’s quest.

The coming of age.

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<< TWILIGHT ZONE >>

June 7, 2011 in Poetry, Twelve Giants

These are the lyrics to the song “Twilight Zone” which we played at the Gorsedh Final night. It is about how, as children, we think we can communicate telepathically with our closest friends and/or loved ones. Do we unlearn this sort of ability or did we never really have it in the first place? I have seen enough in my life to believe that children are psychic and receptive to extraordinary stimuli in ways that most adults never are…:

 

Even as I sit here

Yes, I hear, I hear you call

And even though I wonder why

It feels so wonderful;

Even though it sounds strange

I almost see the invisible

And even though we’re far apart

It’s not so impossible…


Chorus

SCREAM AND SHOUT -

JUST LET IT OUT -

I WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW!

SHOUT AND SCREAM

AND I WILL SEE YOU

IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE;

WE TOUCHED WHERE NO-ONE EVER TOUCHED BEFORE

AND NOW I KNOW

NO MATTER WHERE WE ARE,

WE’LL TOUCH THE STARS,

I’LL MEET YOU

IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE…


Even as we tumble

No-one else can hear us fall

And even though we’re screaming

We’re still barely audible;

Even if we’re dreaming

It’s still unexplainable

And even as we breathe

We share the unbelievable…

© Tony Atkinson

 

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Lost Sisters

June 1, 2011 in Poetry

You maidens with thistle-down blown in your hair
Fiery-eyed sisters, travellers fair
Blown a long lonely distance, to lands strange and wide
Searching for happiness, seeking to hide
From a heart torn and troubled, from the justice of fools
From a life with no passion, where the chained spirit crawls
Pulled onward forever, by invisible thread
And the dreams of new wonders that dance in your head
Adventure may wait just beyond every hill
As you reach the next valley, it calls to you still

Or simply to roam on the mother’s green land
Without care or confinement by any man’s hand
To idly wander, to go and to come
To talk to the trees and to answer to none
To find the way back to original freedom
Eve walks all alone now, returning to Eden
So come my dear sisters, come tell me your tales
I’ll keep them all safe ’till the last sunbeam pales
‘Till the light fades and dies, on the very last day
Within me the myth of each sister shall stay
From these stories I’ll spin strands of wisdom to bind us
When our souls wander lost to connect and remind us
So come wandering hither and rest by my side
Round the warmth of my fire life’s hardships confide
Tell to me true of the journey’s unfolding
Speak softly of sadness you’re wearily holding
Tell gladly of sweet twists and turns in the path
Of happy encounters, and together we’ll laugh
Between every soul common threads we will see
And I’ll stroke your tired head, as it rests on my knee
And soon you will know that no fate need be feared
When you feel yourself one
With the Web of the Wyrd

 

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The Wheel of the year

June 1, 2011 in Wisdom

In Glastonbury we celebrate the eight modern seasonal festivals, consisting of the two solstices, equinoxes and four cross-quarter days. The precise dates of these festivals, particularly the cross-quarters are constantly under discussion, some people prefer to synchronise them with lunar phases or hold celebrations exactly six and a half weeks apart. This means that in actual practice, the festivals tend to go on for about a week and Winter Solstice extends into the Christmas period with the main events being held on the closest weekend to these dates.

Beltaine and Samhain are the oldest divisions of the year, being the times when cattle were moved between summer and winter pastures. The ancient Celts split the year into three parts originally with the introduction of Imbolc to celebrate the lambing season. Lughnásadh was a later development as the agricultural harvest increased in importance. The Solstices were not observed until Dark Age times and the Equinoxes are likely to be a relatively modern invention to complete the wheel. Each clan would have its own private variation on the names of the festivals, which would be passed on as part of their hereditary knowledge.

The table below lists the Celtic language names for these festivals. The modern Wiccan terms were introduced by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s, the modern Druidic ones were dreamed up by Iolo Morgannwg in the late 19th century. The extinct Gaulish terms are reconstructed from information in the Coligny Calendar and as such are highly speculative. Additions and corrections from native speakers of these languages are welcomed.

Date Modern Wiccan Modern Druidic Welsh (Cymraeg) Cornish (Kernewek) Breton (Brezhoneg) Gaulish Old Irish Modern Irish (Gaeilge) Modern Scottish (Gàidhlig) Manx (Gaelg / Gailck)
Dec 21st/22nd Yule Alban Arthan Calan Gaeaf Montol Goursav-heol Goanv Deuriuos Cuidle
Feb 2nd Imbolc Gwyl Ffraed / Gwyl Olau / Gwyl Mair Dechrau’r Gwanwyn / y Canhwyllau Gouel Varia ar Goulou Ogronia Imbolg / Oimelc
Mar 20th Ostara Alban Eilir Canol y Gwanwyn Goursav-heol Hanv Earrach
Apr 30th – May 1st Beltane Calan Mai / Cyntefin Cala Me Kala-Mae Giamonia Beltain / Beltene Bealtaine Bealltainn / Bealtuinn Boaltinn / Boaldyn
June 21st / 24th Litha / Midsummer Alban Heruin / Alban Hefin Gwyl Ifan / Gwyl Canol yr Haf Golowan / Metheven Golowan / Gouel Sant-Yann Medio-saminos Samradh
July 31st – Aug 2nd Lughnasadh Gwyl Awst Aedrinia Lughnasa / Lughnasad / Lughnassadh Lá Lúnasa Lùnastal
Sept 21st Mabon Alban Elfed Gwyl Fihangel / Gwyl Canol yr Hydref Guldize / Gooldize / Goeldheys Gouel Sant-Mikael Foghar
Oct 31st Samhain Nos Galan Gaeaf / Hollantide Nos Galan Gwafand / Calan Gwaf (Allantide) Kala-Goanv Trinouxtion Samonii Samain / Samuin / Samfuin Samhain Samhuinn Sauin

In addition to these dates, we also celebrate:

March 1st
St. David’s Day
March 17th
St. Patrick’s Day
May 19th
St. Dunstan’s Day – Patron saint of Glastonbury
June 17th
St. Hervé’s Day – Patron saint of Bards
Jan 17th
Old 12th Night – Wassailing
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