Hallowquest Lesson 3: The Goddess of the Land

Sorry guys, I've been v. busy so I'll post this now and my Lesson 2 experiences when I have time.
(Done it, just not had time to post).

(pic of back of cards) The Goddess of the Earth speaks: 'Behold! I bring you the wisdom of the deep earth and of the distant stars. From the ages past to the ages to come, I guard the empowering Hallows in the Courts of Joy. Who will seek them now and restire joy to the Earth?'

Gaia has entered our language as a way of speaking about the Earth's spirit. Earth is seen as a living being.

The Goddess of the Land has many faces: our own country has its Goddess who watches over it. We need to discover our relationship with Her and which levels of that relationship are operative. No one spirituality or religion has the only correct picture. Worldwide people are moved by the plight of the Earth and whenever the energy of the Goddess moves people become questers after better solutions. Some are moved to spiritual and some to political action, some both so one informs the other.

Explore your own land's heraldry, coinage, emblems etc to get a sense of the way your land's titulary spirit is expressed e.g. animals, plants, abstract devices, male deities.

Questions:

1 How do you feel about being a citizen of your country? e.g. proud ashamed dissatisfied
2. If your land was a person, what would it look like? Meditate, write a description, draw a piccy
3. What national characteristics are peculiar to your country? Pick cards to respresent these qualities.
4. What change/ healing does your country need - look honestly at failings. Choose cards to represent healings of the situation.
5. What is your country's romantic or poetic name? e.g. England = Albion, US = Land of the Free. By using such titles in meditating, you access a deeper more cohesive sense of the land

Tasks:

1. As you go about daily in your locality, feel the different energies of the streets, green places, buildings etc. Which areas make you confident, unsure, depressed, et?

2. Choose an area in your locality which according to you is in need of healing. Do what you can practically e.g. clearing rubbish. In adition, every day actively beseech spiritual help and send it to the area choosing a card if appropriate to focus your meditation.

3. Choose a local area which according to you feels unsafe. Dedicate it to a specific deity, archetype, healing energy or power and invoke its help e.g. by prayer, meditation, ritual. Give it a nice name (the area) particularly if you usually think of it by a nasty one.

4. Create a closing affirmation to end each meditation e.g. 'From that world to this world I return from (card name) to my own time and place.

(ok, I'll break here and add the next bit when I have time, a meditation)

Aerin

Next installment (I added the tasks by edit, but lost a whole lot of typing that way so I'm playing safe).

Lay out all the cards in the form of the gwyddbwyll board, a kind of terrestrial tarot chess board. (On p. 11). We need to familarise ourselves with this diagram, as it is the landscape we will walk in imagination. Gwyddbwyll was a game similar to chess (the word means wood wisdom).

It is a 12X12 board with the four Hallows at the centre. - = a blank space, I'll name the cards Sw=sword, Sp=spear, St=stone, G=grail
H= Hallow K= King, Kn = Knight, Q=queen, M=Maiden, Greater Powers by number. It is pretty symmetrical, 12 cards and/ or spaces on every row. The XXI goes next to the 6th row down on the left of it, the O goes on the same row to the right of it i.e. neither are on the board.

KSw MSw 7Sw 3Sw - - - - 5Sp 9Sp QSp KSp
QSw KnSw 6Sw 2Sw- - - - 4Sp 8Sp KnSp MSp
9Sw 8Sw - - - XVIII VII - - - 6Sp 7Sp
5Sw 4Sw - 10Sw XIV - - XI 10Sp - 2Sp 3Sp
- - - X II - - IV XV - - -
- - VI - - ASw ASp - - XIX - -
- - XVII - - ASt AG - - VIII - -
- - - XIII I - - III XII - - -
3St 2St - 10St IX - - XVI 10G - 4G 5G
7St 6St - - - V XX - - - 8G 9G
MSt KnSt 8St 4St - - - - 2G 6G KnG QG
KSt QSt 9St 5St - - - - 3G 7G MG KG

At each corner the cards of suit are gathered (the Hallow Courts). The Hallows are hidden at the heart of the land and guarded by Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin and the Lady of the Lake.

XX1 and 0 are not on the board as they are the end and the beginning of the Hallowquest, loss/ seeking and reconciliation/restoration. They are very important: 0 is you and XXI is the achievement of your quest.

Logres is the ancient name for England, we have used the word to stand for the inner correlate of any country. It is about the abiding Mysteries, set in the archetypal landscape of their mythic origins. Use the ancient name for your own land.

Get one of the empty cards from your box and turn it over - the Goddess of the Land. Put her centrally over the four hallows. You may want to cut out a small map and stick it on the card or else draw your own Spirit of your own Land.

You now stand symbolically facing your own Goddess of the Land, and looking forward to fulfillemnt of hopes and desires ready to start the Hallowquest.

Sit in front of your tarot mandala (the gaming board of your quest) and contemplate it quietly without pushing for some revelation. Gaze with half closed eyes, feel the earth below as a sustaining and stabilising influence, a presence which makes you feel safe and loved. Listen for the voice of the earth. Allow realisations, visions or insights to come to the surface and write down your impressions.

We take but seldom give to the land. Did you consider thanking the earth or the goddess as you perhaps experienced the warmth and nurture of the land during your meditation? The Hallowquest is about giving and getting, losing and finding, the quest is a continual reciprocation of energy: never forget to thank your helpers and teachers.

The end of Lesson 3.

Another busy week I think!!!

Aerin

aerin , thanks again for posting the manual.
now i have to print the scans of the cards i have, hmmm, they are only black/white when i print, well never mind.
i really enjoy the hallowquest, i sooooo hope my book will arrive soon, i can do without the cards a bit longer, although i did order them. some things just take forever.
it seems that all peeps that wanted to join disappeared, only us left?
i do suggest we finish this quest, even with only the two of us here.
is it possible for you to attach a picture of the cardback? i don't have that one.

kaz

I've scanned in a card back for you, hope the attachment works I've never tried it before. You'll love the cards and book when they arrive.

It may be that we're all going at different rates, I think kai has the book as well. I agree, I want to do this and even if it is just us now that's plenty for me We should have a few spare days before the full Quest starts on 21 June, I really like the idea of doing it with the 'right' Season rather than as and when.

Here's to your book and deck arriving soon, very soon

Aerin

small version - let me have your e-mail addy by pm and i will send you the file. I can't get the site to let me make it bigger

Aerin

1 How do you feel about being a citizen of your country? I feel (unfashionably) proud.

2. My land would look like a warrior woman who has lost her way, and is a bit battered and unappreciated at the moment. Underneath that you can still see her beauty and strength, she cannot be denied for ever. She often goes unrecognised - it is if people are ashamed of her, even though the people of other Lands are encouraged to appreciate their own lands.

3. I don't want to choose particular cards. For me, each card represents and aspect of my Land, I feel I recognise many of the landscapes and archetypes and they all seem in some way familiar.


4. Self esteem needs healing - which is different from outward confidence. Self esteem means loving yourself and loving others, feeling neither inferior no superior to everyone else, and not having to demonstrate that you have it. The cards I choose to represent this is The Cauldron and The Flowering of Logres.

5. Albion.

Closing affirmation: "From the realm of (card), I step through the doorway back into this world"

(Ok, I will have a break from typing now)

Aerin

the goddess of the land

Being a citizen of the netherlands, or holland as most call it, brings about double feelings. I would probably have that in any country I lived in, as they all have their good and their bad things. Most of the time I love it here very much, and I feel blessed living here.
If you compare holland with a person, you would see a very busy dwarf here, looking like a harlequin because of all those different cultures mixed up here. The dwarf can have a big mouth for such a small being, and can act very selfrighteously. Being so busy, he can be loosing the big picture and only seeing unimportant details. He can be a pain in the ass for others, being big-mouthed and liberal in ideas, always knowing better, but, he has a heart of gold and means well.
Characteristic of holland is the always kicking against rules, not surprising if you see we live here with 16 million people on a piece of land as tiny as birdshit, and they all want their “freedom”.
The healing this country needs is the same as any other western, industrialised country needs. Maybe we need it even more because of the lack of physical space in general. Every bit of land has to be productive, is being used to produce whatever in the fastest way, though more and fast are not always (most of the times not) better.
As far as I know the netherlands has no other (heroic) name.

Here, in the area I live, things look nice and friendly. Lots of green meadows with cattle and agricultural fields. The village looks quiet and peaceful, old houses that are tended very well with nice gardens filled with flowers, give a welcoming feeling. (my village has its own website in frysk language, there are pictures to get an idea about here: http://www.bitgum.nl/frysk/fotoalbum/heden/index.htm , click on the little red dots; and here http://www.bitgum.nl/frysk/index.htm).
What needs healing in the area here is the Hoarslân, this is a beautiful piece of land being turned into some industrialised glass-horticultural (?) centre for tomatoes, pepperoni’s and cucumbers.
This area is very safe, not many people live here, and actually nothing ever happens here. It’s perfectly safe to go out in the middle of the night when it’s pitchdark and wander around in the fields.

Closing affirmation: thanks for guiding me through (…..) and taking me back.

I started doing the gwyddbwyll board, but it’s not looking good doing it in black/white prints, so I have to wait with this one til my deck arrives.

kaz

I live in a part of the UK which has both green fields and also nearby motorways and some big chemical industry http://www.cheshire.gov.uk/.

It is very safe, the part which needs healing is the area which the chemical companies have been manufacturing on for many years. Some people got forced out of their village because they discovered the chemicals had leeched into their homes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1310000/1310980.stm

and here's another example of pollution damage:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_300000/300702.stm

Aerin

Hello,

Sorry I didn't send last week's task. I've been busy but I've had a stab at this week and later on I'll post last weeks stuff.

I don't really feel any strong connection with being British or English but I do feel a strong connection to the North East of England, in particular County Durham so I've chosen to concentrate my feelings towards County Durham (in Britian).

The characteristics particular to County Durham are tradition and establishment. It has a sense of history, having a Cathedral (built in the eleventh century) and one of the oldest Universities in Britian. These offer tradition as well as the establishment of religion and learning. However, these are mainly centred in Durham City and the people who take part in these communities are different from the 'local community' who have, over the past couple of hundred years, consisted mainly of the mining, working class community. Althougth different from the 'locals' these sepearte communities all share a common theme of tradition and establishment. The mining community being as traditional, institutionalised and as insular as the religious and university community in Durham. Growing up in Durham I realised that concepts and ideas that had affected the rest of the country seemed to have passed the mining communiity by. Historically the 'locals' have always been seperate from 'Durham City' - I often feel that there are three different Durham counties. The religious, intellectual and 'local working class'.

Recently this picture changed with the closure of the mines. This led the local community to go through a period in which they had to adapt to change and re-evaluate their place in society. For a region which is strongly traditional and fearful of even small changes, this imposed change was traumatic. Initially the change was resisted, through the miners strike etc. Finally the change was accepted, a peripd in which things were come to terms with and now a sense of new beginings have emerged, with people from my generation redeveloping a sense of who we are in relation to the rest of society.

As a person Durham County seems to me to be somebody who spent most of her life doing what she thought she should be doing and was expected to do. Not questioning why she was acting in this way or formulating a value base for her actions. Decisions were made purely for personal gain directed at making herself more secure. Using the surrounding land, to raid it of it's treasures to improve her life, seperating herself of from outside influences and new thoughts for the fear of how it would change her.
Throughtout her life she has suffered great hardships, life has not been easy and so she has developed skills of fighting, defending herself and courage. She reminds me of a very negative Sword Queen, all her energy turned into protecting, defending and fighting percieved threats. Some time ago an event occured in her life, propelled from the outside, which she wasn't expecting and didn't understand. This frightened her, she fought with all the skills she had but couldn't win because the change was needed and necessary. She had to learn not to fight change but realise the oppurtunities within change, take them on board, learn and adapt. After a period of reflection and evaluation (this is what she has learnt to do. Durham, as a person, is now aware of what they were, and wanted to be, and is changing to become (hopefully) a more Positive Sword Queen - using her skills and abilities, outlook to strive towards self independence, truth and light.

The focus of the change was the closure of the mines. This initially led people to fight for their traditional occupation, rights to work etc through strikes. It was only when the 'fight' was lost and they started to adapt to a new way of live and work that people looked around and realised the way in which, through mining, they had systematically destroyed the countryside. My memories of the village I grew up in are of a pit wheel that never seemed to stop turning, slag heaps that dominated the horizon (in the dark they looked like mountains), coal rucks lining the terrace streets waiting to pick up coal and snow that fell black because of the dust in the air. The closure of the mines traumatised the people in the county but gave respite to the land itself. In the 1980's people fought for the mines to stay open, now people realise they don't need to be miners there are others ways they can live and be safe and secure. Now people are begining to fight for the land to be restored. The slag heaps in my village have now been grassed over but there is still a problem with toxic waste in the ground. Drainage channels riddle the nearby wood and grassland area to drain these toxins away.

While doing this I've been reminded of an incident in my childhood which (I think) explains my feelings towards Durham. I visited my Uncle, who lived and worked as a miner in Easington. He was a Deputy of the mine, very proud of his work, extremely politcal always fighting for workers rights etc. He was also very community minded, taking an active part in the voluntary community. He took me for a walk to the beach one day. I was really excited as like most children I loved going to the beach. When I got there I remember looking over the cliff edge and I saw a beach that was completely black. Coal slag (from the nearby colliery) was being pumped into the sea, about a mile or so out. The sea was grey with coal and the waves and beach were black with coal. Now the coastline along Durham has been cleaned up, it is no longer used as a dumping ground. I am not sure what environmental effects from the coal still remain.

I am proud of my communitys 'sense of community'. It's sense of tradition and place in history as well as it's eagerness and fearlessness in defending itself and fighting for rights and dignity. But I am ashamed of its selfishness in using the land in such a barbaric way to provide itself with safety and pride. For not thinking of why they were acting in this way, the short sightedness in not realising the consequences to the land and themselves of the mining industry. Recently I am pleased to see that Durham is adapting, changing and using it's energy and fearlessness in restoring the land that has been lost and creating a new identity.

The cards I've chosen to represent this are -

Stone Ten (the traditon, wealth and inheritanece of the mining, relious and intellectual community in Durham)

Arthur - The authority, organisation and 'responsible love' of the mining community and religious community in Durham.

Taliesin - The impulse in the Durham community to remember and preserve their traditions and history.

Stone four - the selfishness of the way mining abused the land to gain security and power for itself.

Spiral Tower - for 'upsetting the apple cart'. The closure of the mines shook the community, removed old concepts, liberated other ideas and ways of life.

Round Table - The realisation that we have to accept change and eternal laws but can adapt to meet the challenges these truths and changes reveal.

Guinevere - Through change new ways of living, being secure are developing in Durham. Peace, contentment and living in harmony with nature are beginning to emerge.

The Seeker/Sword Queen -The people in Durham rather than accepting values and beliefs traditionally held by their community are now begining to explore who they are as individuals. Each person I went to school with has a different job, lives in a different county and, even, country. We have all become individuals compared to our parents who mostly left school to live in the place they were born and to work in the nearby mining industry. The seeker represents the empowerment of the people of Durham, the start of their quest and the courage with which they have lept over the abyss to explore what we all can be, including the land of County Durham.

Anyway, I hope you all understand what I'm going on about. I'm not working over the next few days so I'll be doing the 'Gwydd' (can't remeber how to spell it) meditation soon.

Take care, have fun

Kai

My gwyddbwyll (is that right????) meditation:

I laid the cards out and then went to stand by each Court in turn, here is what I got (stream of consciousness just as I wrote in my book):

Spear - everything seems in full harvest, lots of energy and action towards the RHS of the cards, esp. Court cards. Except for the Queen, who seems prayerfull and contemplative, she looks to the left. The movement dominates, with only a little respite: I get impressions of wind and heat.

Stone, Winter - bleak yet full of promise, rigid and controlled energy frozen in time (yet Stone 9 seems to contain the promise of all Seasons and is a shelter from the bleak winter of the suit). Sense is serious, static, lots of standing stones which elicit patience and stillness within me. Even the knight seems static: the main movement comes from the birds with the board in Stone 10. I am struck by the Spiral Tower's nearness to Stone.

Grail - autumn. I see mellow greens and golds, calmness and respite: no rigidity like Stone yet there is a feeling of stillness. The energy in the cards seems to slip through my fingers, I cannot grasp it. I could almost sleep and dream here, forgetting myself and time in a magical faery world and withdrawing within myself and this landscape.

Sword (spring) - I feel destruction and rebirth, a lonely feeling, me against the world. I want to force my way through, and come out fighting.

I stand in the Centre of the G-board, feet on either side of the Hallows. I notice some similarities:
- Gawain and the Sun
- The Owl and mouse in the Spiral Tower and the birds on Stone 10
- Merlin and The Washer stand facing me, they have a similar way of holding themselves
- The White Hart and The Star show 2 people one of whom is entranced by something else (the Hart and the Star)
- The cliffs in Prydwen, and the Towers in The Moon.

At the very centre, I sense the Goddess uniting all aspects in an integration of the whole of what these landscapes and its Powers have to offer. I stand for a moment, and thank the Goddess and the Powers for sending their energies through my being and giving me glimpses of what they have to offer.

Aerin