Spokes in the Wheel: Helping One Another Reach Higher Levels of Spiritual Attainment

“We are all part of a greater whole, connected by invisible threads that bind us to the universe and to one another.”

Carl Jung

---

All art by Arthur Rackham

Our task today as modern Druids and followers of their ways, is to study the world, to study our fellow humans, to study the knowledge of the ancestors, to study all Draíocht and to grow in wisdom. At some point during this quest, we will each acquire our own Ogham keys for our own Magical, mundane and spiritual use. If such new Druids and Filidh were then to meet in convocation as did the Druids of old, perhaps by their mutual sharing, challenging and discussion, each could increase the knowledge base of the others. Sharing wisdom seems to be the best pathway to growth in such well-concealed matters.

Using our own Ogham as keys to our new knowledge, will allow each of us to become better stewards of the Earth, as well as true priest/esses of the Sun, the Moon and the stars. The Ogham were first learned in the groves and among the trees, and it is with them and within their wisdom that we will start our rediscovery of their ancient meanings. We are each a sacred Tree of the Grove, a Spoke in the Wheel. It is together that we shall conquer our ignorance.

Many of us have had strange events occur within our lives. Such occurrences and episodes are unsettling, to say the least, and require a tremendous amount of balance work for one’s psyche. It also helps to know that the mind has many more potentials than what the mundane world ascribes to it. If the mind has more potentials, then the spirit is the world of the unlimited where anything, however strange can occur, in much the same way that the physical world is the world of limit and hence also a place of form and separation (as well as limitation). Our disciplines must teach us to go beyond such self-imposed barriers to mind and spirit, through and ever- increasing use and natural awareness of them both.

In days gone by, there would have been a school for studying the techniques necessary for people with psychic gifts. Such schools are sadly lacking in today’s world, but perhaps they will be reborn out of the needs of the seekers? In conjunction with the Nine Limbs of the Sacred Tree, I would like to present a list of a few of the skills of Druids as provided by Sean O’Tuathail. We should perhaps discuss these and decide what they concern and also consider how we could implement them into our disciplines.

Here is a beginning for our study and consideration of terms used for many of the esoteric arts associated with Draíocht in a list that is given in Foclóir Draíochta – Dictionary of Druidism, 2nd Edition, le Seán ÓTuathail, copyright 1993 John Kellnhauser / Cainteanna na Luise, (excerpted by Searles O’Dubhain):

Pathways

Slí – way, path in life, passage, journey, road, room to proceed, correct course of action,
means, method, manner, appropriateness, direction, space allowed for

Idircheo – area of overlapping liminality between an domhan-so and an saol eile. (lit.
Between-mist)

Ilsaoltactaíocht – (practice of) multiplicity of realities

Dreams

Taibhreamh – dream (esp. Clairvoyant; c.f. ailsing)

Aisling (-í) – dream/trance vision much stronger more lucid than taibhreamh

Visions

Léaspáin – dancing coloured lights (mealladh, c.f. méarnáil)

Méarnáil – phosphorescent light of (usually lesser) sídhe

Iomas – poetic intuition or inspiration (c.f. éicse; poc, síúlacht, túras)

Attention and Focus

Iarrairdeall – lit. “solicitous attention”; blank-mind receptiveness

Mionaire – lit. Fine(small) attention; perception in which data are distinct, events staccato,
time contracted (c.f. nascaire)

Nascaire – lit. “link-attention”; state of perception in which data are patterned, events flow,
time expands (c.f. mionaire)

Leapaidh lánlaidhí – lit. “harbourage of complete attentions”; (esp. Secure or powerful)
mind-set (to do bríocht or in meditation)

Athmhothú – (act of switching) alternative states of consciousness

Gabhlairdeall – “forked attention”, division of consciousness, esp. During somhoill

Psychic Ability

Astaidhbhreacht – “reading” (in the clairvoyant sense of an object)

Aigne – mind, basic dispositions, emotional outlook, basic inclinations (c.f. aireachtail. Ciall,
cuihmne, dúil, éirim, inchinn, intinn, meabhair, meanma, meon, mothú, smaoineamh, toil)

Aireachtail – perception, sense (both physical and 6th), c.f. aigne

Shape-Shifting

Díchealtair – magical disguise, esp. Concealment

Mealladh (mealtaí) – glamour, magically-induced illusion

Aithriocht – shape-shifting, actual not mealladh (v athdholb)

Magical Power

Brí – inherent/intrinsic personal power set by dán (lit essence, vigour, significance), cannot
be won or gained, only developed or allowed to atrope; c.f. bua

Bua – 1) gained or attained personal power, esp. In a given area (c.f. brí); 2) [usually as plural Buatha:) actions which win or maintain bua v tairbhe); (lit. Victory, merit, talent)

Buachaitheamh – to “flare power”, neutral samhlchaitheamh

---

---