"In Druidry, we come together in circles ..... to experience that we are in communion not just with our present-day companions, but with the spirits of the animals, trees, stones, stars, ancestors and children." ___ Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, "The Druid Animal Oracle"
The breaking of hierarchy was the idea behind King Arthur's Round Table at which worthy guardians of the land could sit without order of precedence getting in the way, at which counsel could be given and taken without offense. The old stone circles that predate the Celtic era by centuries were the first meeting places erected to put people into correct alignment and spiritual communion with past, present and future, and with all the beings no longer living as well as those yet to be born. In our own time, people are learning these wise yet ancient ways of relating to the universe.
The change of emphasis that spiritual practice undergoes when people meet together in a circle is radical: no altar rails, no pulpit, no them and us, no priest and congregation. Suddenly there is an equity we have never before experienced. We are one, not only with those gathered about the circle with us, but also with beings in ever-wider concentric circles of relationship that set the universe in a different order and break the old hierarchies forever.
The whole universe is symbolically seated about a communal fire called life - a fire that we all share in the darkness of our isolation, that courses through all veins, that maintains the life of even stones and plants and all that we seldom think of as living. It is a fire that burns in all times and places.
"Light a candle and invite other beings and allies - from the spirits of stars to the spirits of stones - to gather in a circle around the candle and meditate upon the life of the universe. Thank all your invited guests and extinguish the candle. What happened, what changed when you did this? What have you learned?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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