The Druidic College

The season of Alban Elued, the beginning of autumn, has always been a season of magic for me.
The balance of dark and light evokes the eternal play between seasons, the two halves of the world, one courting spring, one flirting with autumn. Seeing both in combination as a simultaneous sensual overlay is like seeing the delicate and joy-filled balance between our world and the Otherworld, as well.

It is in this context that I appreciate the power and preciousness of magic and what a profound gift it is to the fallible and questing human.

Magic is the embodiment of the Goddess Who speaks from the dark inner places:
Dancing in the dark, wondrous fire,
she flung all that paper aside
And lit the inner court like a fountain,
And said, Come in, come in.

Magic looks at the world around us and longs for something. Magic is that longing, channeled into
action of some sort. It can be as elaborate as what is encased in ritual, carefully written and prepared
with all the “right” props and smells and language and motion. It can be as primal and immediate as
a child’s rage turned into mockery and revenge. Magic is all the bardic gifts. Magic is the building up
of thought forms which take on their own existence. Magic can be the union of our delight in the visible
world and the invisible worlds -- turned into service to those realms in combination. For a Druid, magic
is the companion to all we do and are. Even when we think we are squarely in the mundane world,
magic is there.

The Druid magical path is a combination of joy and honor. May we all strive to be honorable in what
we do. In the season of harvest we savor the fruits of our magical work and look beyond to the
flowering of spring.

Bright blessings,
Arvanna Redmantle
Chosen Chief, Silver Birch Grove
Prifardd, Order of the Sacred Oaks