A day with the druids

The Gods were clearly angry
As we pulled up the hill
The Wye looked like a raging dragon
As its red hot breath did spill
Snaking through the narrow lanes
Of Coleford we arrived
At the Rocks the forest dancing
Feeling lucky to have survived

The wind chill clearly testing
As the robed ones made their way
Down the slippery slidy path
To the shop and the old cafe
And on into the caves themselves
To absorb some history
The otherworld the cavernous depths
Unsubstantiality

A place where ghosts could easily
Live in a vapour stream
Its is said that an old miner
Has haunted many a dream
Of those who had also passed on
And may be wandering there
Amongst the iron red jagged rock walls
Plunging down to where

We were slowly making our way
Some one hundred feet or more
Without hand rails to hold onto
And aching knees that tore
Some of the fearless quality
From the bard who we all know
But finally got to the bottom
Of what was the great grotto

Myriad night lights were burning
Giving a great faery glow
And shadowy figures were filing in quietly
And threading around in a slow
Gait in a symbolic circle
An ethereal picture became
Real in a real sense of wonderment
Caught in the fire and the flame

The arch druid in green
Welcomed us all
And set out the programme and we
Held hands and closing our eyes for a minute
Looked into infinity
Imagining what were we thinking
To See what really could we see
We had gone back into time
Time iself
For here in this place we could free
Ourselves from the Earths raging bluster
From imbolc’s cold kisses for she
Had been forcing her rain to fall fair and fast
And dampen our spirits for free

19 candles for Brigid
Had been set in place
All charged with spells
Dedications to trace
Invocations of healing
Celebrations to her
Each dedicant came forth
To be as it were
Blessed with the spirit
As the souls defies
To the very last candle
That never dies

Then came the dancers
The music that rolled
With their little lights
Too
Their movements extolled
The path of the spirit
Transcending the whole
With gentle persuasion
They pitched their sweet role

Old Winter came into the circle
And was old and infirm
With a beard to his knees
Then came the goddess
Her beauty endowed
With the promise of Spring
Her light overpowered

A play in rich prose
The passing really
Of darkness to light
And the freedom to see
Flowers were cast every which way
Some humour we heard
A little light banter
Via the spoken word

Time for some mead
And a taste of the sweet
When the bard was called up
To get on his feet
And bring forth a message
To pass this sweet time
Of sharing the mead
And the feed with a rhyme

The rocks clearly holding a great deal
Of weight
Each mighty crag silently
Watched as we ate
As we drank as we shared
A sharp slurp of brew
From the prowess of Bees
Who were all good and true

Then the speaking stick
Where we heard snd we learned
Where all of our friends came from
Concerned
We sang and we chanted
We listened we heard
We pondered again from the spoken word

Then we all came kind of closer to heal
We hummed in the middle
The feeling was real
Like bees our togtherness
We sent abroad
And our breath charged with soul
And a true sweet accord

Lifted the spirit
we all did cohere
We got that connection
Banishing fear
An ensemble enmasse
A great healing cloud
Of invisible gas

Lifted humanity
Just for a while
A movement perhaps
But a moment of style
A druidic coming together to be
Lost in a world of positivity

Our final farewell
Our lasting goodbye
A hug if we are lucky
I tell you no lie

At the top as the draught
From the outside we felt
There in the darkness
A black cat just knelt
A beautiful soft soul
Purring away
Who came out to see us
And to us did say

I am the ebony prince of the night
I live in these caves
And always invite
The spirits of Clearwell
To dance with me I
Bade you farewell
With a tear in my eye

Back up to the surface
The caverns again
Back into the darkness
To the wind and the rain
Complete saturation
An alien force
Angry tumultuous
Clearly off course
My face paint half washed off
To those who did see
Me in the dark
Clearwell’s ghost possibly

Back down in that grotto
Away from it all
We descended and friended
And answered the call
Of BRIGID and all of the druidic clan
And will come back to ROLL rights
At Ostara The plan

20 th of March Ostara

ROLL RIGHTS stones