UPDATE 18 FEB

From Philip Carr-Gomm: Yesterday like the half a million other people who signed their petition, I got an email from 38 degrees saying: “We’ve saved our forests! The government has just announced that they’re going to scrap the forest sell-off. Together we convinced the government that our forests should be protected for future generations, not sold to the highest bidder.This is our people-powered victory. Next time someone tries to tell any of us that signing petitions or emailing our MPs doesn’t work, we’ll know exactly what to say: “People power does work. Just look at the Save Our Forests campaign”.

It’s fantastic news and 38 degrees did a great job rallying everyone. But a few hours later I got an email from the Woodland Trust saying: “It doesn’t end here…Whilst welcoming Government intentions to abandon plans for disposal of public forests, the campaign to protect and restore England’s ancient forests must go on.
We welcome the opportunity for a more considered approach to the future of our much loved woodlands but our campaign continues. Whilst we welcome the removal of threats to public access, there is still an acute need for better protection of Ancient Woodland, our equivalent of the rainforests, and restoration of ancient woods planted with conifers.
Even if there are no sales of publicly owned forests, the worst of all worlds would be for there to be no change to the loopholes that have allowed 850 ancient woods to be threatened by built development over the past decade. Ministers have made strong commitments over the past few weeks to increase protection for ancient woods, and we will be holding them to these commitments.
As I write, there is a proposal to water down protection for ancient woodland in the planning system. We need your help to defeat this proposal by 28th February.”

A part of me groans that we still need to keep at it to protect the trees. But before we all start ungirding ourselves let’s just add our voices to the Woodland’s Trusts campaign to close the loopholes and stop the watering-down of planning law in relation to woodland. You’ll find details here and a way – whichever country you live in – to send an automated message to Alan Scott, in the Department for Communities and Local Government, who is dealing with the planning consultation. In needs to be done before Feb 28th. And don’t think it won’t make a difference! Remember what has just been achieved precisely through getting our voices heard!

Maybe we still need Jamie Reid’s picture after all – here shown in a new version (graffitied by us) for Goddess lovers:

UPDATE 17 FEB

UPDATE 16 FEB

David Bellamy articulated the feelings of most people when they first heard the news of the government’s proposed disposal of all of England’s public forest: “The green heart of England is not for sale.”

It looks as if the message is getting through. Over half a million have signed the ‘Save Our Forests’ petition organised by grass-roots movement 38 degrees

DRUIDS VOW TO PROTECT ENGLAND’S FORESTS

AND THREATEN TO STRIP THE COALITION PARTIES OF THEIR LOGOS

The government announced today that it would consider greater protection for forest already scheduled for sale. But their announcement does not affect the vast majority of England’s publicly-owned forest whose fate still hangs in the balance, and now Britain’s small but vocal minority of Druids have added their voices to the campaign to stop the government’s plans to dispose of it.

The number of Druids has declined somewhat since the 1930’s when the Druids counted Winston Churchill amongst their members, and their fraternity was over a million strong across the British Empire. Today most Druids are tree-hugging Pagans, although fraternal groups still exist, and there are plenty of Christian Druids – the Archbishop of Canterbury is an Honorary Druid of the Welsh National Eisteddfod, as are members of the Royal family, including the Queen. Estimates put the number of practising Druids today at 50,000 and Philip Carr-Gomm, Chief Druid of the world’s largest teaching organization, The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids, today announced plans to help in the campaign to save England’s forests:

‘For every day the government threatens to dispose of our national forests it will lose friends in every corner of society: from people who thought they were Tories and that their party would protect their countryside at one end of the scale, to former road protesters ready to commit their lives to protecting the forests at the other: and, in the middle ground, the usually silent majority of intelligent citizens already showing their support, through petitioning and through their loyal membership of opposing groups such as the Woodland Trust and Friends of the Earth.

Now that the consultation process has begun it is vital that we show the government what we think and feel. The central belief of the Druids – that the land, the forests and trees, and the wildlife they support, are sacred – is not such a strange idea to most people any more. They know that our world is threatened by so much today, and they feel deeply upset that the government has chosen to endanger our public woodland. And it is ironic that is has decided to do this in a year that is designated by the UN as the International Year of Forests.

We agree with the wide range of people and organizations  – including Lord Clark, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Jonathan Porritt and the Woodland Trust – who believe that the government’s proposals are ill-conceived and should be abandoned.

The Conservative Party uses the Oak tree as its symbol. The word Druid means ‘Oak Sage’ and the Druids have traditionally been considered guardians of these trees. In this capacity, we now ask the government to consider its responsibility to the environment and to future generations, and to withdraw its proposals.

We trust that the government will respond to the overwhelming opposition their plans have evoked, and welcome the announcement today that they will reconsider the conditions applying to forestry already approved for sale. We hope that the outcome of the consultation process will be a raised awareness of the need to protect our woodlands and conserve biodiversity, and that positive strategies will emerge.

However, if the result of the consultation period is a continued threat to the forests, we propose a symbolic public stripping of both the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats of their symbols – a tree and a bird – both of which are likely to suffer if our woodlands are compromised.’

An image to replace the Conservative Party logo has already been created by the artist and socialist Druid Jamie Reid. Best known for his Punk Rock images, and work for the Sex Pistols, Reid’s work can now be found in the Tate Gallery. He has been involved in direct action campaigns against the poll tax, and the Criminal Justice Bill. John Marchant writes: ‘Jamie Reid’s unique vision articulates and gives form to some of the key issues of our times. He responds to the ever-increasing attacks on our civil liberties and shared common spaces with passionate anger and savage humour, and shows us ways in which we might re-organise our political and spiritual resources. This is the role of the shaman and Reid’s art acts like a lightning rod, returning us to the earth so that we might share the work of healing… After a ten year installation period with the Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch he is now immersed in discovering and revealing the Aspects of the Eightfold Year.’ John Marchant, Isis 2007. Reid’s site can be found here and his site that focuses on the Eightfold Year here.

The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids will be issuing a CD to raise awareness of this issue, and Jamie Reid has kindly agreed that we can use his artwork for the CD and that – in true anarchic style – we can graffiti it (changing ‘God’ to ‘Goddess’)! Thank you Jamie! Here is Jamie’s original. We’ll  post our graffiti version soon!

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. The amount of people who protest, sign petitions and contact their MPs or government ministers does make a difference. In debates MPs refer to the number of letters and calls they have received. Remember we pay their salaries (or rather those of us who pay tax and haven’t relocated off-shore – but that’s another question!). Already the 38 degrees petition has got over 450,000 signatures. Let’s help it get to a million. See http://38degrees.org.uk/page/s/save-our-forests

The Woodland Trust has also started a petition. It’s different, so you can sign both. Sign it here: http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/campaigning/save-ancient-forests/Pages/default.aspx

Public forest in Ireland may also be under threat. Find out about this and sign a petition here: Woodland League.

2. The government cannot get rid of the Forestry Commission and sell its land under present legislation. But if the bill they are trying to push through now – the Public Bodies Bill – is approved, they will have the legal ability to do so. The bill is currently with the House of Lords and we need to show our disapproval of it. A public march of a million people is being planned in London for 26 March. Watch our for news on this.

3. Respond to the government’s consultation paper: You can find it here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/forests/index.htm. You can submit your responses online or by mail. To respond effectively you need to be informed about the issue. Whatever you do, don’t rush into responding to the consultation. Learn more about it first. A good place to start: http://saveourwoods.co.uk

I understood this logic very keenly, having marveled at the magic that is the human body, and biology in general. But something over the years nagged at me more and more, and was a big factor in changing my path to Paganism and Druidry. That is the absolute irony behind the IMPERFECTION of the human body when disease sets in. For so many disease processes, including the 2 top killers of adults, cardiovascular disease and cancer, and the 3 top killers in children, cardiovascular disease, cancer and trauma, human behavior (or misbehavior) plays a major role in speeding one to their death.

But what of those many disease processes that are bestowed upon the unwitting, unborn child? Or the infant, the child? As a pediatric specialist who has had the misfortune to see too many children die of heart disease, often genetic or congenital, my perspective on the nature of our origin and biology has changed radically over the years. And moved me to find a spiritual path that understood this imperfection. Consider the story of one of the earliest Celtic healers, that poor vain god Diancecht, divine healer, who was able to craft a beautiful prosthetic arm of silver for King Nuada to replace his lost arm. But when Diancecht’s son Miach, an even more accomplished healer, bested his father by providing a new prosthetic arm of flesh and blood for the king, Diancecht killed Miach in a jealous rage.

Has anyone met this doctor in their own life?

I do not recount this tale to disrespect the gods. Far from it, the story is a lesson for us—a word of caution and warning to those who would think themselves any better, or those who would believe themselves to be freed from the chains of vanity. No, alas we are all human, doctors included. I have met a few arrogant physicians myself over the years. And I confess to my own arrogance from time to time. It is hard to go through the intense training that we have without building up our ego. But this essay is not an apology, nor is it a meant to justify that arrogance. It is to generate a discussion in the Pagan community about some important ethical questions raised when disease and spirituality collide.

Consider the recent case of a Wisconsin family who chose faith healing over “conventional” western medicine, and who lost their 11 year-old daughter to diabetes in that choice. Not to Child Protective Services, but to Death. The parents were found guilty of reckless homicide and sent to jail for 6 months, with 10 years of probation to follow. There is no question of whether they loved their daughter. The mother stated during the sentencing hearing, “I do not regret trusting truly in the Lord for my daughter’s health. Did we know she had a fatal illness? No. Did we act to the best of our knowledge? Yes.”

It’s pretty hard to argue with that sense of faith (not logic), if one truly believes in religious freedom. So here is the point of conflict: modern science and medicine have provided us with many tools to treat illness, improve quality and quantity of life, but these tools are not limitless, nor are they infallible. Most of us have experienced this all too well at one time or another, either with ourselves or our family. Indeed, many have developed a sense of distrust of modern medicine because of it. American society has put all the eggs in this basket, and has ingrained this implicit trust in our medical system to a degree that it has been fully incorporated into our infrastructure and even into our laws. Moreover, modern Christianity has incorporated western medicine into its faith to a degree that Christian conservatives have forgotten those limitations.

I’ve always been amazed by the so-called “pro-life” movement in Christianity, aiming to preserve life at all costs, even unto pushing prolonged artificial life support on the person in a persistent vegetative state. It has been, and continues to be, an oxymoron for the Christian community to behave in such a manner when they believe in a merciful, omniscient, all-powerful god, and eternal life after death. For instance, were they worried that Terri Schiavo would go to hell when she died? Her death at some point was a certainty, as it is for all of us. Do these conservative Christians believe that they were doing Ms. Schiavo a service in keeping her alive on tube feedings?

I had the experience of taking care of a very similar patient during my training. This person had been devastated by a stroke during surgery and was left in a persistent vegetative state. The patient had been in the hospital for many years—never left—and who was on tube feedings for all the necessary nutritional requirements. This patient’s brainstem function was intact, so the patient was able to breathe, and kept an appropriately regulated heart rate. But there was no communication whatsoever, no purposeful movement. I would round on the patient, ask how s/he was doing, and tell her/him I was going to do an exam. I would reach out to check her/his pulse, with no indication that there was any sensation or recognition of the contact. S/he was not able to eat—the tube was placed in her/his small intestine and continuously fed her/him. The nurses did an admirable job of keeping her/him cleaned and cared for otherwise, but I would ask them if they had ever observed any communication or purposeful movements, and the answer was always no. The patient’s family never came to visit. The other big difference in this case to that of Terri Schiavo’s is that my patient was hospitalized in a Catholic hospital. The cases of the Wisconsin girl who died of diabetes, Terri Schiavo and my own patient from all those years ago are all very dramatic illustrations of a much more common dilemma of how we adjudicate the conflict when faith and medicine collide. A much more common example I see in my practice is when patients want to avoid treatments that I recommend because they want to “keep it natural”. For many it’s a spiritual issue—perhaps they are Pagan or of some other religious tradition such as that of the Wisconsin family; for others, it relates to a simple lack of trust in modern medicine without regard to religious faith; and still for others, worries of how artificial medicines will affect their bodies.

I have learned to sympathize with these patients and families over these years, as I have experienced the limitations of what I have to offer patients firsthand. Also, I have had to do some “unlearning”. In our training, we were taught by some that no other medical approaches other than our own “conventional” western medicine were of any value. It is a shame that my own teachers have so quickly forgotten that many of the modern medical breakthroughs were from Mother Earth herself—salicin (aspirin) from the bark of the willow tree and other trees, penicillin from the penicillium mushroom, the cardiac glycosides from the digitalis plant (foxgloves). The list goes on… Of course, many of our treatments are synthesized from the modern pharmaceutical laboratory as well.

All of these issues ask very different ethical questions, but are illustrative of the very strong connection between faith and medicine, life and death. The question I’m most interested in is this: if these questions came up for the Pagan community to decide or adjudicate, what would we have done? What would the Druids of old have done? What would we do if we are to decide for the many situations that will arise in the future? Or is it even for us to decide? Should it be government that makes those decisions? Some other church? Or is it up to the individual?

I know what the Pagan physician in me would do in each case and I promise that I will bring my beliefs forward at the end of this essay. But if we are to have an honest debate about these questions, our beliefs on medical ethics, or more broadly the ethics of death and dying, need to be brought forward for the world to see. And lest we isolate ourselves from the greater community of humankind, they must be able to work within the basic constructs of society and the law. So let this essay be not a dissertation on how all of these complex questions should be resolved, but rather the opening to that honest debate within the Pagan community.

One of the wondrous aspects of this spiritual pathway that has attracted me from the beginning is the ability to tolerate a wide diversity of viewpoints, and the freedom afforded individuals to make their own decisions as long as no one is harmed. The problem with these life and death questions is that harm is difficult to avoid where disease processes are concerned. And what of the fact that we all must die at some point? Who of the wisest among us can say what is the best way and time to die?

In my practice of medicine, I have integrated new practice patterns, or strengthened old practice patterns I already had, based upon what I have learned in my reading and meditation during my travels on this spiritual pathway.

These include:

1. To have an implicit respect for others’ religious beliefs. This extends even to praying with families when they ask it of me. After all, in those cases we are all interested in what’s best for the patient, even when there is a disagreement as to what may be best! Let the Spirits, whether it’s the Spirits we work with in our Pagan rituals, the Christian Holy Spirit, or those of other spiritual traditions, send out their healing energies too!

2. To provide the best and most complete disclosure of the risks and benefits of the treatment I am offering within the time given for that visit. This includes a discussion of alternatives to that treatment.

3. To empower the individual to make their own healthcare decisions whenever possible, providing them with the facts as completely and concisely as I can. This can be quite difficult where children are concerned, and in many cases the parent(s) must make the decisions in their stead. In the U.S., the parents are legally entitled to make healthcare decisions for their children until their children reach the age of 18, or if they become an emancipated minor, or if they lose custody of the child. Having said that, I am often impressed by how a healthy parent-child relationship can work towards a mutual decision.

4. To work with patients and families on a treatment plan that incorporates natural and herbal remedies and other modes of healing when possible, when they wish. This has been perhaps the most difficult, because medical literature is so incomplete with regards to side effects of herbal remedies and interactions with other medications. This is something I hope to improve with further education in this area. Moreover, are there complications possible with “alternative” healing methods such as acupuncture? If so, there needs to be education of these issues in our training. But there also has to be a willingness for us to learn about these methods as we continue on in our practice. As a general rule, I can see no detriment whatsoever to prayer or meditation incorporated into a treatment plan!

5. To know when to say I have nothing further to offer to a patient of any medical value. This includes the dying patient, even if they are a child. In these most difficult cases, we must shift our focus on what is spiritually beneficial to the patient. And that brings us full circle back to respecting the religious beliefs of my patients and their families.

So I promised I would comment on what I would do in the cases I mentioned above. I may be sticking my neck out for the headsman’s axe, but this will give the reader the transparency to know what my values are as they read, and begin what will hopefully be a meaningful discussion for the future!

In the case of the Wisconsin child with diabetes, if I had been the physician of record and had examined the child before she died, I would’ve offered all of the treatment options available to treat her diabetes including conventional medical treatments, and dietary interventions in hopes that she would survive to live a productive life. If I was the judge sentencing the parents for the reckless homicide charges, I would’ve required them to write a lengthy essay explaining their beliefs for publication in the press (this would not harm them beyond the time taken to write, as the case was already public knowledge) so that others would understand their belief system and could open up the debate to the general public. Any publication monies made (if any) would be donated to a mutually agreed-upon public health charity or perhaps the WHO. I would not have sent them to jail. I’m quite sure they are suffering the loss of their daughter enough.

As for the more difficult question of what to do if the parents refused treatment before the child died, I think that would have required discussions with the girl both with and without her parents present (she was 11 years old) to see if she would give her assent to treatment. If so, a court order granting temporary custody to the court to allow her to be treated could be given, then restoring custody to the parents after treatment. For those who would be alarmed by this judgment, consider the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses: it is not uncommon for parents to bring their children for a needed blood transfusion to treat a blood disorder, give temporary custody to the court while their child is treated, then receive custody back literally a few hours later, preserving their child’s health, and preserving their souls in the eyes of their god. A seemingly silly exercise, but that is another debate altogether…

In the case of Terri Schiavo, ideally she would have written a Living Will in advance, rendering any treatments given following her devastating neurological injury subject to her own approval. I believe that as a society we should educate everyone on the usefulness of these important documents (regardless of what Sarah Palin may think). Too often, there is secondary gain to be had by other family members making decisions, or even the hospitals or other care providers. With the absence of a Living Will in Schiavo’s case, there was disagreement between her husband and the rest of her family creating a difficult situation to sort out. However, if my impression of her medical condition was correct (not having examined her), she was in a state of un-life—a persistent vegetative state with the only really functional part of her central nervous system being the brainstem. A sad state, to be sure. How is artificially feeding someone in that state doing that person a service? In my opinion, it is assault to place a feeding tube down into someone’s small intestine no matter what state they are in, unless they gave their consent to have it done. I think that providing any end-of-life care necessary to allow her to comfortably pass on without providing artificial life support would allow her spirit to transition to the next life. This is eventually what was done after a very expensive and visible legal battle that reached all the way to the U.S. Congress.

I would render the same opinion in my own patient during my training all those years ago. It wasn’t my choice to make at the time as a trainee, and even if it had been, I have changed quite a bit since that time. My values have evolved and grown in the fertile land of my new spirituality, and alas I do not know what happened to my patient. I can only hope that her/his spirit was given a chance to find rest and comfort!

In closing, I am so happy to have found a spirituality that reconciles the often painful ethical dilemmas that sometimes are imposed between families, care providers, and patients. A spirituality that promotes healing without imposing itself between the dying and their afterlife. I welcome the discussion and debate that I hope this essay will bring, because I believe that the Pagan path will shine brightly compared to other “life-affirming” religions when these questions are considered on the ethical front. Please feel free to write me with any comments and stories!

Bright Blessings to all, Dragonstorm

Bard John Fitzgerald shares with us a piece he describes as “…a meditation on Manchester, my home city, and on the creativity and imagination which brings the place alive. It’s about awareness really and the importance of nurturing our sense of wonder and recognising that the world around us, town or country, is always charged with suggestiveness, poetry and possibility. Though the piece is ‘about’ Manchester you don’t, I hope, need any knowledge of the city to read and enjoy it and I feel that people from rural environments will be able to resonate with its themes just as much as ‘urban rats’ like myself.”

“It sounds surreal I know, but I’m increasingly fascinated at the moment, obsessed even, with the many and various doorways one sees peppered around Manchester city centre. There is, to my mind, something highly suggestive at work here. Doors, for instance, to the old cotton warehouses in the Village and also along Dale Street – from the Northern Quarter to Piccadilly Station.

“Equally arresting are these graffiti-laced portals we meet ‘down the underpass’, beneath the Mancunian Way.

“What’s this all about then?

“Where does it go? Who’s got the key?”

John writes, “The [Bardic] course has certainly played a major part in encouraging creativity in my life. I’ve been writing a fair bit of prose and poetry and I think this piece, The Door Marked Summer, is about the best of what I’ve done so far.”

I haven’t seen anything else of his, but if The Door Marked Summer is a representative sample, I hope he’ll share more of his works with us!

Click here to download The Door Marked Summer as a pdf.

The White Hairs

Noah Mullette-Gillman, a Bard in OBOD, has recently published his first novel, The White Hairs, that should be of interest to anyone interested in Druidry or in figuring out life!

The White Hairs is a work of spiritual mythology. Somewhere on a white and snowy mountain is a young creature learning how to leave his body and travel the world inside of the wind. The wonders and terrors that he will see are the beginning of an adventure that will feel familiar to anyone who has been fed upon by life, and wanted to fight to get back the joy and soul that they were once able to take for granted.

“Farshoul watched as the long white hairs on his arms became translucent. He watched as they faded away. Soon he could see through the skin and bone of his arms to the ice beneath him. The frozen water that he could see through his phantom arm seemed more real than his own body. He watched as the others blurred in his vision, their white fur becoming indistinguishable from the snow around them. They appeared to disappear. Then Farshoul began to move.”

Visit the author’s web site at www.noahmullette-gillman.com.

The Happiness Well

David Grewcock, a Druid-grade member in the UK, writes to tell us of his new book, The Happiness Well.

The Happiness Well is a collection of 108 personal thoughts which the reader can use for contemplation or meditation as each statement is short, but quite reflective.  He’s posted a PDF excerpt from the book here: http://www.magpieschest.co.uk/shortcopy.pdf 

The book is available from Lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=8034568 ), £5 for a printed copy, or £1.50 for the PDF.

You can view her paintings, which are strongly influenced by her Druid studies, at http://www.signe.at/.

Celtic Maidens

Author Ceri Norman writes to tell us that her first novel, Celtic Maidens, was released on July 26, ahead of the anticipated schedule! (See http://druidcircle.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/celtic-maidens-a-novel-by-ceri-norman/ for the original book announcement, and visit the author’s site at http://cerinorman.com.)

Reviews include:

        ·         “Highly atmospheric and imaginative.”
        ·         “Redolent with atmosphere and with a narrative that in turn surprises and spooks the reader, Celtic Maidens is a journey into the past, present and future that cannot fail to satisfy the reader on many levels.”

Ceri is available for book signings, talks and interviews.  For more information or to contact Ceri please e-mail her at ceri@cerinorman.com or visit http://cerinorman.com.  Ceri is also a freelance writer for Spiritual/New Age magazines on the topics of Faeries, Angels, Druidry, and Folklore.

Undines—from the Latin root unda, which means “wave”— are water elementals, or spirits of the water world. Like their fellow elementals—salamanders (fire), sylphs (air), and gnomes (earth)—undines are united with, and personify, their element. First mentioned in the alchemical works of medieval botanist Paracelsus, undines appear throughout European folklore. Who are these mysterious creatures of lakes, oceans, and waterfalls?

Undines takes readers directly into the water spirits’ realm through stories, personal encounters, and interviews with such luminaries as Istiphul, the undine queen whose presence embodies the magical essence of the feminine. Whether seen as fact or fairy tale, Undines presents archetypal truths and insights into human nature. The powers and abilities that undines display are latent in us all and crucial to humanity’s evolution (or mere survival): harmony with nature, empathy and compassion, a deep capacity to love, and a cooperative rather than combative relationship to the world. Undines will appeal broadly to readers of mythology, fantasy, and fairy tales, particularly to practitioners that work with nature spirits and elemental beings—Druids, Wiccans, pagans, and those interested in magic and mysticism.

See more details at Amazon

Damh the Bard and I, with the help of music from Charlie Roscoe, Nigel Shaw and Jonny Robels, have created a set of five guided meditations to help reconnect with the elemental forces of nature. The meditations are available for download and are available on itunes, or CD Baby here. Each of the first four meditations are very different – the first one earthy, the second ‘watery’ and so on, with the final fifth offering a deep relaxation that connects you to all four elements. To give you a feel for what they are like, and whether they work for you, you can listen to this fifth one here. It lasts about 20 minutes so please only listen to this when you have at least 25 minutes of undisturbed time ahead of you. Do not listen to it in a public place, while traveling, or where you might get disturbed or interrupted.