The Magical World of Tylluan Penry

Just a quick piece.... interested to hear your thoughts on it!

I think it's important to say here that as far as I'm concerned I transcribed this piece... meaning I wrote down what I could hear in my head. I don't make any claim to being its composer! I just feel that this is music I have heard at some point in another life.

PS I haven't blogged this one before!

Just a quick post to thank everything who reads this blog, who drops by and comments, not to mention all my long suffering blog friends - A Very Happy and Successful New Year!

I have been very tardy in replying to comments.... it's too cold to even type much at the moment, and I can see my breath inside the house although the heating is on.

But a few minutes ago I stuck my head outside the front door and saw the most spectacular crescent moon, accompanied by what i think is probably Venus. Absolutely magical! Sod the cold, it was soooo worth seeing.

I used to bow only to the new moon - now I bow whenever I see Her, after all, She deserves to be reverenced. Ritual isn't set in stone, and the very best ritual originates deep in the heart. Do whatever feels right - I've even been known to do a little dance for the moon, out in the darkness amongst the sweeping brushes and water buckets!

It's such a pity when people feel they must have a script to follow instead of following their inner calling. So this year as part of my New Year's Revolution Resolution (what a different one letter makes!) I am going to explore ritual more thoroughly... I wonder where it'll lead me?

Brightest blessings to you all for 2009!

I don't often repeat a blog, but I thought I would this once. Like many Pagans, I believe in reincarnation. Often past life memories come to me in the form of music, which I have to rush off and write down (and occasionally, if I'm lucky, then record.) The following is a piece of music that came through a couple of years ago...

I called this piece 'The Cuckoo' because that's what it reminded me of. But what made it so interesting (well, I thought so anyway) is that a short while later, another line of the same piece came through. In other words, another instrument was added on. And this is what it came out like:

(It is me playing, by the way. All recorded from a keyboard.)

Anyway, I thought that was it, but later that same day a third line of the music came through.... here it is...

So, there it is. At one time I used to try and write all these pieces down. Nowadays I tend to simply enjoy them as a sort of astral concert!

I have been thoroughly selfish these past few days. I had a very quiet Christmas. No visits. No visitors. There was actually a legitimate reason for this: The kitchen isn't finished but it's coming along and the cooker will work as long as I don't turn everything on full at once.

That's fine. I can live with that. What I can't do is promise to cook dinner for at least six people without there being major problems. So to be on the safe side I said we would have to have a very quiet day on the 25th. Just Mr Penry and myself. Instead of a roast with all the trimmings we opted for a rich venison stew instead. And we ate it when we felt like it, which was 8 o'clock in the evening, instead of feeling we had to eat around lunchtime.

And do you know what? It was amazing! In the morning I had gone out into the garden and performed a very private ritual - just me and the garden. It was fantastic, very spiritual and not something I will forget in a hurry.

Once of my daughters bought me Enya's latest CD 'And winter came' as a present and playing it calmed our dogs down. There is something about Enya that animals seem to love. I remember once having a surreal conversation with a 'professional type' who calmly informed me that his cat had told him that it wanted to die with Enya playing on the CD player....

Anyway, I hope you've all had a wonderful festering festive season! Hope to catch up with everyone soon!

Brightest blessings
Tylluan

Yesterday I heard a dawn chorus of the birds - a sure sign that they sense the way the earth is changing gear after the Solstice. Perhaps it's a sixth sense that humans once possessed too... certainly recent news reports about a blind man who could navigate his way around obstacles seems to suggest that mankind does possess these extra faculties even if most of us have forgotten how to use them.

One faculty that seems to have been all but lost in the modern world is common sense. Yesterday near where I live, in the midst of last minute shopping chaos, the council decided to dig up the road, causing total pandemonium!

This is where the festive season starts for me - the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. I don't know about you but I find this time of year profoundly unsettling, partly because the year is 'changing gear' and getting ready to head back towards summer.

Knowing how and where to celebrate can sometimes be a problem. What constitutes a celebration? Who knows? It can change from year to year, and that's no bad thing because at least it prevents us getting too stuck in our ways.

Today it's drizzling and I've had to postpone the idea of lighting a bonfire or even doing a ritual out of doors. But I greeted the day when dawn first spluttered through my bedroom curtains, and I've made some time to burn incense and conduct a small private ritual in my kitchen.

One of the most important things to remember is that all festivals have some sort of theme. How we react to that theme is a matter of personal choice and circumstances. Sometimes we're not sure - and that in itself is a valid reaction.

For me I think the perfect day contains some time for thought and reflection, a period of calm and quiet, plus a small effort - even if it's only a cup of coffee made with the right intention - to welcome the day and recognise that the year is moving on.

Happy Solstice Blessings!

Regular readers of this blog may recall that back in early July my GP told me to diet - 'or else'....

So I did. I have now lost over 50 pounds. I still have all my original symptoms and health problems which (surprise surprise) never had anything to do with my weight in the first place.

I look in the mirror and see the same person looking back at me (and I never had any problems with myself anyway.) I wasn't dieting in order to be slim, or to buy new clothes. Mr Penry liked me the was I was and am, and I'm perfectly happy in my own skin.

I don't feel I've been dieting. I just changed what I ate (more fruit, more veg... a lot lest complex carbs.)

And guess what? Nobody has yet noticed I have lost any weight.

Weird, eh?

This week I have learned to appreciate little things. Like having a sink. Or running water. Or maybe a cooker.

In my case this is because we are in the middle of getting our kitchen sorted (at last!!) but one hundred and fifty years ago there was nothing at all strange about not having an indoor water tap. In most cities there were a couple of water pumps and people queued to fetch water in buckets. Often the pumps were contaminated with all sorts of nasties (I won't mention them here in case anyone reading this is enjoying a jam doughnut or something.) And of course outbreaks of cholera could be spread through in infected water supply.

I can't really complain about going two days without my kitchen sink, although I admit it does seem a bit weird. But I'm filled with admiration for my ancestors who coped like this (and worse) all the time.

And I hope, when my new sink is installed, and I have a cooker again, and all the things I so foolishly took for granted up until a few days ago, that I will properly appreciate them!

Where I live (the South Wales Valleys) people deck up early for Christmas. They also deck up extensively often vying with their neighbours for the most decorated house in the neighbourhood. Over the years I thought I'd seen it all, reindeers on the roof, a giant sled with 6foot tall elves wandering down the street, santa with a parachute and once, a very sad looking inflatable snowman that appeared to have hanged himself by jumping out of an upstairs window with a noose around his neck (I kid you not. He was still there in January.)

But today I saw something that brought a smile. A house covered in lights in the shape of pentagrams. The Christmas star, maybe? Well, I daresay there are some who'll think so. But look closely in this area in the daytime and you'll see a number of pagan decorations on the houses: green men, moons, witches on broomsticks.... and it makes me wonder.

I have no idea who lives in the house with the pentagram lights. But if I find out I will certainly let you all know!

Today I have been getting ready to go and do some rune readings up in Hay which is holding it's Winter Fayre tomorrow. Am really looking forward to it because I get to spend most of the day in Adele's gorgeous shop, Spellbound, which is in the little lane opposite the main car park.

Mr Penry has hinted he may come with me, and now that I have made a new notch in his trouser belt I may well agree to this. For those reading this who find that last bit baffling, I have to say here that Mr Penry's trousers have lately been very susceptible to gravity, especially since he appears to have lost a few inches from his waist.

In fact, this week I have suspected that many of the comments about the 'greatest full moon of the year/decade/ever' may be a reaction to the time Mr Penry's trousers fell down when he was putting up a nesting box.

Alas for the full moon, our sky is full of clouds. Unless the wind carries them away pretty sharply, we shall only feel the moon's energies. But never mind. We know she's there, and she, in return, knows we're here.

Here we are, fast approaching the winter solstice. Unlike Christmas (which we have recently been told may in fact have occured in June) the solistice is relatively fixed in comparison.

There is something in the air at this time of year - and I don't just mean the smell of mince pies, either. Look around and you can see our world changing. Look at the sky just after sunset and you will see it takes on a peculiar greenish cast, quite unique to this time of year. Admittedly, to prove or disprove this you are going to have to stare at the sky for the next twelve months or so, but that's really part of the pagan path. It's ongoing, and you can't hurry it.

There is a sense of change in the air too, difficult to describe, difficult to identify sometimes, but there nonetheless. Partly I suspect it's because of the nature of the changing daylight... since the Summer Solstice the days have been getting steadily shorter, and this becomes much more noticeable once we have passed the Autumnal Equinox.

At the Winter Solstice the days are at their shortest, and then they begin to lengthen - by February most people can see the difference, especially in the mornings.

Lost Johnny commented the other day how this months full moon is the largest of the year. Go out and have a look at it. It really is magical. Yesterday you could see the moon clearly long before sunset.

Anyone wandering in my part of Wales might see me out, bowing to the moon. At one time I bowed to the crescent moon only. THen it was to the crescent moon and the full moon. Now I just bow regardless. I'm so happy to see the moon that I bow anyway!

Now the cynics reading this will say 'the old bat's gone mad. It's only a lump of rock.'

I say it's more than that, much much more. It's what the moon represents, what she awakens in us, that makes her so special. And what she awakens within us also awakens something out there...

I'm not saying any more than that, it's just something you have to find out for yourself. If you want to.

But take it from me, that when you start looking for something, it generally comes looking for you!

I've not been around to blog much these past few days because I've been desperately trying (and failing) to catch up on my writing before gallivanting up to Hay on Saturday (at the time of its Christmas Market) to do some Rune Readings.

Please bear with me. I shall be back soon!

Brightest blessings
Tylluan

Well, I began yesterday with great plans... write, rest, write, rest and so on. Of course, the best laid plans and all that have a nasty habit of coming tumbling down around my ears. Which explains why, instead of getting on with my work, I was leaning out of the attic window with a hammer and chisel trying to get a pane of glass to fit.

All the windows in our house are made up of small rectangular panes of glass. Most are held into lead casings, some have bullseye's in them and others have stained glass. The attic however has wooden casings and I measured up for the glass, Mr Penry cut it from a larger piece and then we discovered my measurements were fractionally out

Anyway, we did mend the window, and I did get some writing done eventually. But rest? Not yesterday.

I've been asked to write about being a solitary witch for the 'Witchcraft and Wicca' magazine which is published by Children of Artemis. Although solitaries have been around probably since the year dot, the popular view of witches is that they must somehow belong to a coven or group.

I've never felt the desire to join a group and have always been perfectly happy working on my own. After all, it doesn't half cut down on the arguments! If I want to I can spend months or even years exploring some obscure tenet of knowledge that would probably exasperate the others in a group!

Also, it must be said that there are groups and groups. There certainly isn't 'one size fits all' when it comes to covens. Some follow one tradition, some another. Some people will tell you that you get lonely as a solitary, but that's not altogether true. Being a solitary simply means that you work on the craft alone, not that you become a social pariah.

Of course the biggest problem with being a solitary is actually motivating yourself to do something. It's all too easy to let things just drift. 'I'll do it tomorrow' you tell yourself. And then you find yourself putting things off and somehow never get around to them.

But you know, this isn't so different from other aspects of our lives. We have to motivate ourselves to do all sorts of things (housework is a good example!).

What sort of things do you find it difficult to motivate yourself to do?

At the moment I am up to my eyeballs in work... not that I mind of course, because I love writing (and talking!) but there never seem to be enough hours in the day.

I mentioned a little while ago that I did some Rune Readings up in Hay in Adele's lovely shop, Spellbound. Some people who came for a reading already knew a bit about the runes while for others it was a completely new experience. But I was just wondering - has anyone here ever had their fortune told? And if so, was it with cards, tea leaves, crystal ball, tarot etc.?

Was it a good experience, bad or indifferent?

Imbolc Festival Weekend

If you are thinking about getting away from it all after Christmas/Yule, then you might consider an Imbolc Festival Weekend which will be running on the weekend 6th – 8th February, 2009.

This is an all-in weekend (including accommodation, vegetarian meals and a number of workshops, 3 rituals and a variety of events – including a talk by Yours Truly) being held at the lovely Ceridwen Centre in the Teifi Valley, West Wales.

For those of you who have not come across the Ceridwen Centre before, this is a 40 acre organic farm, set in the magical and ancient county of Carmarthen. Its only 25 minutes from the end of the M4/A48 and the average journey time from London is about four hours, although at this time of year it might be wise to allow a little longer. The centre has a purpose built centre that hosts a wide range of courses, celebrations, workshops and meetings.

You can find the venue online here: http://www.ceridwencentre.co.uk/index.htm

The Imbolc Festival Weekend is a not for profit event, although obviously a charge does have to be made to cover your accommodation, materials and food. It begins at 5pm on Friday, 6th February, although you can arrive as early as 3pm if you prefer. Bookings should be arranged no later than 5th January 2009.

I’m really looking forward to this event, which promises to be both informative and relaxing.

For more details, contact Clive, the festival organiser at : Cwrightdraco@aol.com

Some people occasionally ask me why I read the Runes, and whether they are the only form of divination I've ever used.

Actually, when I was young I started off by reading palms. Hands fascinate me, they still do, but I think there's a feeling of inevitability about them that you don't get with Runes. After all, the lines on your hand do not change from year to year, so basically whatever you read at say, age 21 is likely to be pretty much the same at age 40.

Besides, I feel that the power of a rune reading is that it holds a mirror up to the questioner. This means that really all a reading can do is reflect what is going on in someone's life, and help suggest ways of dealing with it. Personally I prefer doing that sort of reading rather than saying 'You are going to marry twice and have seven children.'

Tea leaves are great fun, especially with children, who are often surprisingly good at tasseography (reading tea leaves!). I think this is because their minds are less fettered about what others think so they just look at a picture and come out with what they think it could be.

Unfortunately modern methods of making the tea have put the mokkers on that one - you simply cannot read the tea leaves using a couple of Tesco's tea bags, not even if you break them open first. So at least one benefit of using old fashioned tea leaves if that you get a decent cuppa first and then do the reading!

I also used to read the Tarot - and sometimes still do. But I keep on coming back to the Runes because they seem to be the system that suits me the best. All that symbolism seems to release something in my subconscious that makes them surprisingly easy to read.

Nobody can agree exactly how old the Runes are, and there are several different Runic alphabets: I use the Elder Futhark which is the oldest known one, and has 24 runes. Other systems may have more or less, and some (including the 'Witches Runes') have some symbols that I wouldn't describe as Runes at all.

I should be back in Hay doing Rune Readings at Spellbound during the Hay Christmas Market on Saturday December 13th, so if you can drop by then please call in and have a chat! If you can't make it then but would like a reading, call the shop and you can even arrange a reading by post or phone! The shop number is 01497 820170 (you will probably get through to the Nepal Bazaar - also well worth a visit if you're in Hay - but ask for Adele and you will be put through.)