Dearbhaile Bradley

Yesterday I went to buy miso in Earthfare (wholefood shop) and the one I usually buy wasn’t on the shelves so I asked at the counter if they’d any rice miso as I’m allergic to barley. And what I learnt is that there is no food coming out of Japan since the earthquake, that the miso we can buy now is last year’s. It stopped me in my tracks. What do we know of Japan now other than the name Fukishima? We have no idea how the people are suffering. There are something in the region of ten million people affected by nuclear radiation poisoning in Japan right now and who knows what other effects the earthquake has had. Read more »

Yes I know I’m over a week late posting this but I don’t suppose that matters to anyone but me! I celebrated Lughnasadh at the ‘baby’ Green Gathering in Chepstow. Lughnasadh is named in honour of the Celtic god Lugh, which means “light” or “shining.” In Old Irish the word “Lunasa” means “August.” So just as Bridget is the goddess of Imbolc, Lugh is the god of Lughnasadh and like Bridget has a whole host of attributes including rulership of creativity. But where Bridget is associated with the first stirrings of spring and the potential to create, Lugh is associated with late summer, harvest and completion of creative projects. It is achievement, the creative gifts fully developed rather than potential that is associated with Lugh. Read more »

Hi everyone,

I want to thank all of you who’ve subscribed. I look at the list of who I’m actually writing to here and it all feels so much warmer and more intimate.  I’m now half way through this experiment in blogging and having subscribers makes it a different experience than when I was unclear if I was writing just to myself or to others. Anyone who wants to can join the circle of people with whom I share reflections on the subjects that preoccupy me and please comment, I delight in your feedback. Read more »

Well I’m all set for Buddhafields. I’m working with a seriously great team of people there headed by Kevin Frea running introductory sessions to the Work that Re-connects in the mornings Thursday through to Sunday and then, one of those afternoons though I’m not sure which, I get to perform Visions of Transition again.

The video introducing my ‘Visions of Transition’ showcase is out there at long last.  Read more »

Happy Solstice everyone!

“Are you going to Pilton?”

I’ve lost count of how many people have asked me this in the last few weeks. When I moved here, I had no idea that this referred to the event known outside of this locality as “Glastonbury Festival” but Summer Solstice and Pilton go together in the minds of the residents of Glastonbury. I worked at the festival in the 80s when it was an anarchic and exciting event with a strong political flavour. I remember clearly someone from CND ranting at the crowds from the main stage. Can you imagine the reaction they’d get now? Read more »

I am delighted that there has been some debate on this business of being Bardic that is related to my previous “What is a Bard?” post. Disappointingly this debate did not take place in an abundance of commentary on this particular post but on facebook and the revamped Gorsedd Ynys Witrin site (gratitude due to Tim Hall for setting this up). Read more »

So, as I said in my first blog, one of my ambitions this year is to perform as Bard at each of the Fire Festivals. I am happy to report that last weekend I fulfilled my Bardic office to my complete satisfaction and beyond that I found this Beltaine totally amazing, to the extent I have difficulty trusting that I can adequately convey what an extraordinarily magical experience it was. Read more »

In this last week, in the run up to the local elections, I had a conversation with someone who trotted out the tired old argument that we are powerless to change what is happening in the world politically or economically. It was a conversation that left me feeling frustrated because to a great extent the line from Richard Bach’s “Adventures of a Reluctant Mesiah” applies to the situation,

“Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them”. Read more »

Some weeks ago I undertook to explain what the difference is between a Bard and a poet. As someone who claims to be one, I should know what a Bard is. Unfortunately it is not a clearly defined concept and there are a whole range of different notions as to what constitutes a Bard floating around. So to begin, let’s look at what other people have to say. Read more »

Long before the investigations of scientists revealed that all matter is in fact energy vibrating at different frequencies and that the solidity of ourselves and everything around us is illusionary, we understood that we can speak because of how air vibrates through the voice box in the throat and our capacity to hear is due to how these vibrations affect ear drums. Now that we live in a world where we know everything that exists consists of vast amounts of space in which sub-atomic particles vibrate at different speeds, the significance of sound is that it is the vibration over which we exercise control, the vibration through which the human spirit expresses itself. Read more »