Weddings

Week 46

Weddings

Or as they are known in pagan circles - handfastings.  I have attended many handfastings over the years and not one of them has been the same.  Even though many of the couples were druid or wiccan, their ceremonies were very different from each others.  The one thing that was evident in all of them, is love and honouring nature as part of their ceremony.

It is said that the origins of the term 'tying the knot' derives from when the couple are bound together during the ceremony.  Handfastings are a year and a day or life. Our current marriage laws says you cannot divorce until you have been married for a year and a day.  Even though our marriage ceremonies and laws in the UK are based on the old ways, handfasting is not a legally binding marriage.  If you want to be married in the eyes of the law, you need to perform the ceremony again at a registrars or have an officiating person at a registered location, like many hotels now do.

I have never been married, I've not been asked since I was 16, which was a very long time ago now. I have often thought about how I'd like my ceremony to be and where.  It would be nice to have it at a stone circle or sacred place and then feast afterwards.  A proper wedding feast, with roasting meat, a big fire pit, big cheese wheels, fresh baked bread and simple foods. Traditionally brewed ales, meads and ciders... it's all good lol.  No white dress for me! Me in a dress actually, excuse me while I throw back my head and say hahahahahahahahahahaahhaha! Who knows, it might happen, just like someone may want to marry me one day. Meh.

Anyway... back to handfastings. I like the idea of doing this rather than the official route. I like the idea that if it doesn't work out, you can just untie the knot and go your separate ways. Willie Nelson jokes 'why is divorce so expensive? Because it's worth it!' I would hate to spend thousands on a plush wedding for the whole reason of the celebration to be marred by pressure of organising it. I've photographed a few weddings and handfastings over the years and I keep in touch with many of the couples. Most are still together but some fell out spectacularly.  I feel sad when I look back at these wonderful celebrations and remember the love shared, the love I captured on camera, and it's gone.

I'm a biker too, so a simple ceremony and a big feast really appeals to me.  I never have been one for pomp and ceremony. Below are a collection of images that I have taken, of handfastings.  Enjoy.

Summer solstice 2007 at Avebury. Most in attendance were druidic. Bard recital and jumping of the broom.  Sadly, they are no longer together but it was a spectacular and wonderful day.

Summer solstice weekend 2007 at Avebury. God/Goddess walk, which met and formed a staff arch, which the bride and groom walked through.

Always makes me feel sad when I see pics of Ghyll, RIP mate

A poem I wrote in their wedding album I created:

In the core of our souls

Our love spirals around

The trees and stones witness

Our ancient pledge to the land

With friends and kin present

With the Warband did raise

Their hearts and love to us both

Stepping through the arch of staves

Our hearts and soul unite

As our King binds us both

Hand to hand, heart to heart

Forever betrothed 

Random Avebury handfastings, after the Gorsedd, multiple couples

August 2007, Windmill Hill, Avebury. Already married, they renewed their vows with this handfasting ceremony. Most of them were druids, very different to other ceremonies I'd been too. Conducted at dusk, the light quickly faded, which made for some lowlight images.

God walk at sundown

My son with his twin friends

 

I was invited to attend a handfasting of a couple at a farm in Cumbria. My archdruid friend was conducting the ceremony.  The celebration leaned more towards the traditional wedding with a big wig wam tent, tables of wedding food and lots of family and friends in formal dress.

Hog roast wins every day!

Castlerigg 2007 - one of my favourite stone circles, with two of my favourite people.

RIP Fintan

Winter solstice 2009 at Avebury. Mostly druids but a heavy wiccan influence. Sadly, these two aren't together anymore and Ghyll passed over last year.

Raven Bran

Week 36

Raven Bran

Bran was a young man that found the early Warband in the 1990's. I met him in Arthur's book and grew to admire this wild youth who was very much part of Arthur's quest to find who he was. Sadly Bran (aka Andrew) took his own life in 2007 and his mum Maggie came on to the old forum to let us all know.  We were invited to his passing over ceremony at the Sanctuary in Avebury.  We left the Red Lion and walked up the Avenue to the Sanctuary and then gave him to the winds on top of that hill, over looking his favourite sacred places.  This is the poem I wrote at the time.

Hail and farewell Bran /|\

*********

Talisman found and interred for King and Land

Raven found and set free. Bringer of magic

Left us to re-enter the Great Mystery.

May he return to us carrying messages

Courier of intention, healing energy and thought

Messenger of these things on the Blue Road of spirit

I felt your presence on the cool northern winds

I felt your presence in the hearts around me

I felt your body, cupped in my hands

I felt you connect within 

I wanted to hold you a bit longer but had to let you go

I wished I had met you then and not now

We released you to the winds of the land

We stood united in circle and cried

We felt the pain in the hearts of those around us

We felt the cool northern winds in our hair, in our faces

We turned to the hills and let you go

We wanted to hold onto you a bit longer but had to let you go.

The Avenue, Avebury

Cliff passing over Bran with Terry Dobney, Ghyll (RIP), Susanna

My lovely friend John Coyler, our long walk back down the Avenue

Maggie being raised Summer Solstice 2007

All

Hylo again!

Well it's the early hours of Friday and I'm itching to get my next blog out. I've lit a candle on my altar, lit a shalimar joss stick (so hard to get hold of now) and have some Nigel Shaw playing. What's this... and some honey jack and mead to hand. Ace... so let's start.

To be or not to be

To be standing in the sun

To be bathed with light

To be intouch with yourself

To be surrounded by natures beauty

To be part of spirit

To be one with it All

To be one with it All

Standing in the sun

Arms stretched out wide

Twirling in the sunshine

Absorbing the healing rays

Soaking in the light

Feeling elevated and free

At one with it All

A physical body

A free spirit

As it should be

We are all connected. You've heard of the 7 degrees of separation and those on Facebook, are always amazed by 'mutual' friend connections. With the advent of the internet, this is becoming a very small world indeed.  There are other ways of being connected of course, those who are open to the All can link in to people and the places around them.  I haven't tried to explain this before, it's more difficult than I thought.

The moment you climb over the sand dunes and see the vast expanse of the sea. The salty air whips your hair in gentle wildness, the waves crash on the beach and the gulls cry.  The sun breaks through the clouds and beams on the sea.  Or maybe the moon reflecting millions of smaller moons on the forever moving surface. That moment you feel in awe of the scene, the rawness of nature and feel that awesome connection to the All.

(Click the pictures to view full sized)

Whitby Regatta

Oh the moon! You step outside to empty the bins and look up to the clear nights sky. Stars and planets beam their lights down and we feel part of it All.  Small in the great Universe but still part of it. Or my personal favourite, you're lying in bed and the full moon fills the world with silver. So you open your curtains and lie there in it's silvery liquid magic. And it is magic to me.

That moment you're standing near trees and can hear the wind blowing the leaves, reminding you of the sea as it hits the beach.  The feeling of growth under your feet as the roots reach down, the bark and the endless patterns before you as it envelopes everything, the colours of the leaves and the dapples the sun makes.  The sense of beauty and life and life within this living ancient thing. Connection to the spirit of the All.

The way you can stop walking in a seemingly plain place and stand there, still, absorbing the life around you. The birds calls - mating, protecting, warning, greeting.  The little usually unseen creatures darting past like you're not there.  The grasses waving in the breeze. The river eddies swirling, rippling, running forever on as life goes on under it's surface.  The clouds up above - huge rain clouds or high wispy ones. The colours of the day as it starts and ends - the world as it becomes lighter and darker.

Princes Risborough

Watching our creatures of the the world. That moment an owl swoops across your vision as you drive along, lit up by your headlights, a ghostly wonder. I love seeing owls, it makes me smile.  Or seeing a huge buzzard being chased off by a gang of crows.  Crows... I could watch them all day! They don't take any shit of anyone, regardless whether it's prey or maybe a great hulking grey heron. They stand their ground, chase off any invaders and protect their territories.  Their calls change in the year too. You get the spring time calling of their territories, their body bobbing up and down with each shout, tales go up.  Then there's the mating game shortly after this.  They seem to go somewhere for a couple of weeks in the summer and you suddenly realise it's been rather quiet outside, the usual racket has dimmed.  Then they are back.  Crows are fun to watch.  I used to spend hours gazing out of the window at their antics.  That is where my name comes from... which is for another blog!

White Crow

Crow at Castlerigg

Then there are the extraordinary places. Those truly sacred places built to honour something long gone from a world that demands evidence and proof or reason.  Yet these places tap into something deep inside our psyche and wake us up. We are drawn there, we feel the need to gather there, to raise our cups and give thanks to our ancestors who built them thousands of years before us.  These places can be a great stone circle, a burial chamber, a henge or perhaps ancient woodlands with trees that saw out world wars, some times hundreds of years old, standing guard, watching over Time as it sifts past.  We connect to our ancestors there, we wonder how they built these great stone circles and why.  The scenery is usually wild and spectacular too, add the rising or setting sun and the world around this space explodes into colour.

As I said to Warwick Davies whilst filming at Long Meg last summer; each place is different, each place has it's own special kind of energy.  Long Meg is peaceful, serene and calming. Castlerigg was described by a friend of mine as buzzing and feels like you've been sandblasted clean.  Stonehenge is a wonder. You drive down the road and there it is - a WOW feeling, inspite of the fences and the fact it's being milked as a giant cash cow.  Avebury - each part of it is different. It's best to go when there isn't a Gorsedd on!  I find it peaceful and it radiates great power too.  My favourite place is Uffington White Horse. Over 3000 years old, 'ta'int how a horse looks like, it's how it be'  (as Terry Pratchett so aptly describes it via Granny Aching). The sky is huge under that hill and those hills just pop out of a relatively flat landscape. It's almost like someone has tried to fold it into pleats too. At the bottom of the hill is Dragon Hill. At the top of the hill a mile up the path is Waylands Smithy.  You can't help but stand on that hill, by the Eye and get lost in the world surrounding you.

Filming at Long Meg

Long Meg and her sisters

Uffington White Horse

Avebury

Stonehenge

Uffington White Horse - one of my all time fav pics

For those moments you stand there, connected to All around you. It takes your breath away. You are aware of that moment that you are part of it All. All of this without adding people, ritual, ceremonies, mead or a specific day of the cycle.

Meridians - we are all connected.  Before getting absorbed in coloured candles and all the trappings of ritualised dogma, take the time to connect to the Universe first.  Plant your feet in the richness of the life all around you. Feel the life forces in everything.  Become part of it All.  Otherwise, without that connection, you have no real power because you cannot truly understand what you are not really part of.  How can you heal if you cannot connect to the Universe, to channel it, to be the vessel? Exactly!

I'm proud to say that took all of these images (more here). I see the world and capture it for a moment. My final word is you can find beauty in anything if you plug in and open your eyes, all your eyes.

Love really is All around!