One great thing about living where I do is the multitude of Bronze and Iron Age hill forts scattered across Dorset like Maiden Castle and Badbury rings, Hambledon and Hod Hills to the east and Eggerdon Hillfort to the west. These were the fortresses of the Celtic people that arrived on our shores around 700BC around the same time the Greek and Roman nations were being founded. I love to visit the hill forts, generally more for their isolation from the modern world and the magnificent views from the ramparts of the countryside than for any historical content. When I could I would ride to a site and relax in nature and admire the world from a high vantage point. Sometimes I would come with friends but most of the time I would come alone and over time I would try and imagine what life was like for the people who lived here nearly 3,000 years ago. I could imagine the busy activity of the camp, the Celts at work and play and guards walking the ramparts keeping a watch out over the landscape. Sometimes I would imagine a druid crossing the camp to his altar at the eastern edge of round houses.

The druid was a priest king to the tribe and like the priest kings that governed the city states of Babylon and the Indus valley, they saw to the spiritual and physical wellbeing of the tribe. They were the connection between the gods and goddesses and the community. They were as powerful as any king or chief.

I wanted to know who were the Celts and their overlords, the Druids. There are many Druid Orders existing today working to a modern format developed by the Wiccan Gerald Gardner in the 1950’s as the thoughts and practices of the ancient druids are not known. After contacting some of the main Druid Orders I was invited to photograph the private summer solstice ceremony at Stonehenge with the Cotswold Order of Druids. The following year I was asked back to represent the Holly King to battle with the Oak King with bow staffs inside the ancient temple. I went into battle without protective gear despite a warning from the Archdruidess that my opponent was taking the fight very seriously. Facing the Oak King I called on the goddess to be my protection and asked for focus, courage and strength to get me through the contest. It was the first time I had ever called on the goddess for help and could imagine her watching from above the stones as the battle commenced shouting her support alongside half the druids circled inside the arena. The other half cheered for the King of Light and fertility. It was my first direct interaction with the goddess and I came through the fierce combat unharmed despite getting hit on my head, losing my crown and receiving a hefty rap on my knuckles. I fought well and, as foretold came out the victor; I had saved the world from being scorched from another six months of strengthening sun. I felt the goddess had not only heard me but ensured I was not hurt and fit to ride my motorbike home afterwards and have called on her on many occasions since where she has usually come through but I can’t ever get her to stop the rain; maybe that is a good thing.

My interest in the druids led me to expand onto a pagan path and soon I was joining the local group of witches in ceremonies and rituals on Portland. I was a druid in a witch’s hat. There are many similarities between the druid and witch worlds. They both celebrate the eightfold seasons of the year made up of two solstices and the equinoxes equal spaced between the beginning of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Both Druid, and many other pagan organisations ask for protection within the circle from each of the four quarters and welcome in the gods and goddesses to witness and if needed to deliver a spell or blessing into the outer world. For the druid mind the eight fold year tells the story of the goddess that is generally seen as Brigit, the Lady of Light who arrives at Imbolc to spark spring into life with her staff as the (flower) Maiden, marrying the Devine Sun at Beltain at the start of summer becoming the Bride, returning to the Otherworld at the start of autumn at Lughnasadh, as the Crone[1] to give birth to the Devine Sun at the winter solstice.

For the witch mind, Brigit is the triple moon goddess where as the virgin she represents the period from the first slither of the new moon to the full moon. As a virgin she is seeing the world from innocent childlike eyes and learning through reason and logic to understand it. Brigit becomes the Mother at the full moon, which always seems a bit unfair as her influence only lasts for three days. She represents the release of the spiritual will into the world of the elements. She gives birth to the plans made during her time as a virgin. Between the full moon and the new moon is the influence of the Hag, a learned old woman that knows the ways of the universe who would ensure the plans would grow strong and thrive in a material world that was full of as much chaos as order, a world in progress as it spins through space and time around an unknown galaxy full of mysterious forces and unseen dark energies. The new moon allows Brigit to transform from the hag to the virgin to be reborn as the first slither appears in the night sky.

Needless to say Brigit is one of the main goddesses I work with today knowing that she, like all the goddesses that survived into the 21^st Century is merely an individual piece of the Mother Goddess who the Late Stone Age people of Mesopotamia called Tiamat. The ‘Lady of Life’ held the tablets of Destiny allowing her to influence human destinies for thousands of years allowing for a simple life that worked in harmony with nature and at one with the energy of the planet. When Marduck cut Tiamat in two forming the upper and lower worlds of heaven and hell, he took control of the Tablets of Destiny for himself to begin and create his own history with men at the top of the Patriarchy and women nothing more than at best obedient wives and at worse whores and prostitutes. The planet has fallen into constant cycle of conflict and wars, plagues and famine caused by manmade laws and justice where money and power are two of the new gods that control mankind today.

[1] The wise woman of the tribe.

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