Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice and Yule marks the lowest point within the skies above us in the Northern Hemisphere for the Sun. The bringer of life and the great God who empowers and rules our lives, radiating, emanating and fuelling us on all levels of our being, is now waning as we reach what is the shortest day accompanied by the longest night within the calendrical year.
The greatest light show in our Universe is now ebbing and retreating into a time of slumber and as this God slowly dissipates before our very eyes, we can once again enter our state of hibernation just as the Bear does.
As the fires from our hearths crackle and warm us, we say farewell to the Sun who has invigorated and inspired us since the spring, reaching his crescendo six months ago at the Summer Solstice.
As we turn inwards, now is the time to recharge, just as the very ground we walk upon is at rest along with all the animals, trees, shrubs and life all around.
A time to reflect upon what has been and what is now passed, along with putting into plan what we would like to see and welcome into our lives once the time of retreat and slumber is over.
As the festive period begins, we must not forget what the true meaning of this very sacred time is about. To give thanks for all that we are, have been and will be again is pivotal to our well being, to enjoy all that is around us, to spend time with family, loved ones and friends, to take the time to value this very life that we have and hold dear.

As the Sun slowly slips away, give thanks for the energy he has given us throughout the year that is now almost over, bow your head and give thanks to him, for without the Sun, we would not and could not be.
However you celebrate this time of year, I wish you a very magical Winter Solstice and Yule time.
Much love to you all.

Archaic and Wrong

Within the majority of the world today, we as a supposed race of civilised beings have reached the time where we do not need to kill, exploit and eat the animals we share this beautiful planet with.

Unless you are an Inuit living in the frozen expanses, or a tribe living where arable land is sparse and unmanageable, there really is no excuse whatsoever to partake and support mass slaughter of our fellow creatures. We have now reached an understanding, backed with factual scientific evidence that proves to not eat meat is healthier for us all, even though to become Vegan has to be about saving lives and not being a part of cruelty on a massive scale.

How can anybody in this day and age possibly think its ok to eat another being, let alone wear the skin, its beyond belief and shows a total lack of compassion, empathy and humanity.

The social conditioning of needing a staple diet of meat and two veg has long gone and was absurd anyway.

Times are changing and whatever you believe, it is wrong to kill, slaughter, exploit and see the creatures we share this planet with as a commodity for us to ridicule and use.

Come on peoples, sharpen your senses, escape the cycle of cruelty and exploitation of animals and make the transition to become meat, dairy and cruelty free, there really is no other way.

John Awen.

 

Animal Totems

Animals have so much to show and teach us. They have a much deeper connection to the Universe and the finer workings of life. Animals are pure, they have no ulterior motives at all and they work on a much deeper level of consciousness and being, they are simply happy to be, clear, clean and unadulterated.

To recognise your Animal Totem and to then incorporate it within your very psyche and utilise the extremely powerful spiritual lessons that they teach and show us in your day to day life is truly humbling. A much deeper and more spiritual level of awareness can and is reached by accepting them to show you the world around.

For many millennia mankind has embraced the animals into his life and by doing this now you can harmonise not just with yourself and your surroundings, but this can show you how to tap into the source of all life and all creation, which is the sacred space that is held within the universe. We all hold this sacred space deep within us, unfortunately though, for many people, that space is locked away and forgotten.

Learn to recognise and allow these beautiful creatures into your life, let them show you how to enjoy life to the fullest you can and accept everything around you as it is.

One of the most powerful and inspirational parts of life that we can ever learn is by communicating with these sacred animals that we share this beautiful planet with. Unfortunately, because animals do not use vocalised communication, far too many people think the animals are there just to be exploited and that humans stand above them within the grand scheme of things, very sad indeed.

Learn how to recognise your Animal Totem or totems, there is no limit on how many we can have every single creature and animal has a different message to show and teach us, we just have to let them into our lives, communicate with them and accept what they teach us.

Our Ancestors were far more attuned to the natural world and environments that surround us, it seems as if we have become almost frightened of the natural world and totally detached from it. It’s time now for us to disconnect which will allow us to reconnect to the world that really matters.

Take your place within the natural world; allow the various signs and messages to flow freely to you and allow the animals to show you the most valuable lessons you will ever learn.

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Total Hypocrisy

 

As with so much of society nowadays, the defining lines which mark out set boundaries are becoming very opaque and almost non existent. It seems many people are struggling with what is acceptable and how to portray themselves in a world in which has become so easy to fabricate and elaborate just who and what we are. A very sad part of this is hypocrisy and total misunderstandings are being fed outwardly just to create an illusion to others.

In a world where for the most part of it, people profess to be animal lovers, that falls short totally as these same people happily eat animals, therefore they are totally backing mass slaughter on a global scale and the barbaric exploitation that sadly comes with the dairy industry.

Admittedly social conditioning has a lot to blame for in this, as we are literally force fed hypocritical rubbish that preaches to us that to remain healthy we have to eat meat and drink milk from Cows, what an absolute load of nonsense that is.

As a species we are aware of the toxins and poisons that are added to meat, yet still we nonchalantly carry on being a part of this multi billion pound industry and for what? Mass slaughter and total exploitation of billions of innocent animals, which are sentient beings, they have emotions, they feel pain, hurt, loss and they suffer when they feel bereavement, yet still people buy into it and support it, unreal.

Going Vegetarian is a great start and in doing this, undoubtedly many, many animals lives are saved, simply because they are not being eaten, yet the dairy industry is as big a culprit as the meat industry, so then it becomes down to personal beliefs, do you love animals or not, it really is that simple. Can you say that you are compassionate to the plights of others when you support mass slaughter and cruelty? Can you switch off to the fact that you are consuming by products that are not meant for consumption by humans, these are animals and they are pure and totally innocent, yet many people carry on professing to be animal lovers, well, quite simply they are not and cannot truly love animals whilst they carry on buying into and consuming meats, cheeses, dairy milk and wearing by products that have all derived from mass slaughter and exploitation of these beautiful creatures and animals which we share this world with.

The only option is to ‘GO VEGAN.’

 

Changing of Worlds

 

From the very moment of my birth, death, or passing over as I prefer to call and acknowledge it as, has been around me constantly. You could say a close friend, or ally.

Having not been expected to survive within this world, due to complications, I have over the years and throughout my life, had the utmost respect with the word and very conception of death.

For many years of my life, around 12 years in fact, I lived in close proximity with death, watching friends die, often in front of my own eyes and my own fragile existence, which for 12 years due to a massive heroin addiction, I personally did not care whether I lived or died, such was the grip of addiction over my whole being.

Putting aside the intensity of those years, death, or passing over has always played a huge part in my life, whether that has been my own near death and at times, I have actually transitioned into the realm of the deceased which I call ‘The Summerland’s, I have worked for a funeral directors also, so I really have seen death and all that goes with it in very close proximity.

The sheer fragility of the lives we hold so dear is an invisible line and any one of us can lose the mortality which we are aware of in this body vessel at any time. Some of us are just more attuned and intrinsically aware of this fact than others are.

Life is for living, enjoying and savouring constantly, for none of us truly know when it will be our time to shuffle off this mortal coil. What is important and essential for our daily lives, is to be aware that nothing, nor nobody should ever be taken for granted, not for a single second.

Whatever we may believe and whichever path we choose to follow, passing over is not to be feared at all. The life we have in this body vessel will at some point end, yet our transition into another world will begin at that point and the infinite journey that our soul is on, will continue once again.

Honour the passing over time of death, hold it close, for now though and while you can, enjoy living this life and all that it has to offer, show and teach us.

There is no Death, just a change of worlds.

 

Much love to you.

John Awen.

 

Summer Solstice.

 

We are now rapidly approaching what for me personally is the high point and crescendo of the year. A truly powerful and splendid time. We are reaching the peak of the six month journey we have been on, running parallel and alongside the great Sun God.

As the Sun reaches his highest point of trajectory on June 21st, he will hold station in the skies above, before slowly reversing and retreating very slowly and majestically, waning as the Moon does, a wane that will inevitably take six months to complete, before starting the journey and gradual ascension once again just after the Winter Solstice.

I find it memorising and totally enigmatic, that at the same time we ourselves are living our lives almost mirroring the achievements and splendour of the great Sun God. In comparison, we retreat into our homes at the cold and darker months of Winter, just as he does. Once the Winter Solstice is over, the light starts returning, albeit very gradually and it is at this point, that we start to awaken, physically, mentally and spiritually. We start to stir from our state of hibernation, yawning and stretching and with each day that passes, we feel enriched with the days that lengthen.

Slowly and surely, we leave our wintry shelters and emerge into life once more and all this gathering of strength, insights, ideas and aspirations, is collecting momentum, then when we reach the Summer Solstice, just like the magnificent and beautiful great Sun God, we feel at our best, our most positive, strengthened, wizened and inevitably at our own personal peak, once again, this is happening and playing out on all of our levels of consciousness and sub consciousness.

This Summer Solstice, I am very pleased to have been asked to attend Watkins book shop in London, the UK’s oldest and original esoteric book shop, dating back over 100 years. Here I will giving a talk and signing copies of my book ‘Summer Solstice.’

It would be great to meet you there, if you are able to attend and if not, signed copies of this book are available here on my website.

Many thanks and enjoy this very special and magickal time of year.

 

John Awen.   / | \

 

Why do we slaughter and exploit other beings ?

 

I have no doubt at all that one day Mankind will stop butchering, slaughtering and totally exploiting our fellow creatures, maybe not in my lifetime, but one day.

For a country that openly professes to be animal loving and compassionate to other beings, why then, do we participate and actively eat the flesh of another animal?

I have reared animals, helped them birth, watched them die, passed them over and on the other end of the spectrum, I have loaded up animals, driven them to and then unloaded them at the slaughterhouse. I have then herded them into the small pens, knowing what fate awaited them and I have then stroked them as they waited for their turn to be killed. Even when I was doing this, I knew it wasn’t right and I will carry those memories for the rest of my days.

Fact is I now no longer agree with mass slaughter of animals and the exploitation of other beings sickens me to the core. Where eating another’s flesh is concerned, its verging on cannibalistic, its immoral, sickening and uncalled for. Unfortunately, social conditioning has corrupted us all so much that we nonchalantly just go along with it, unquestioningly and for most of the time, nobody thinks about what they are eating and drinking, which shows how archaic and totally blind we have become to it all.

I see parents taking their small children to see the newly born lambs in the fields and openly encouraging them to stroke these very cute babies, falls a bit short really, when Sunday comes, these same parents will serve up roast lamb and expect their children to eat it all, which they will, as we so easily disassociate that the lives in the fields which we deem as cute and lovely, are the same beings and creatures that the majority of society readily eat nearly every day of their lives.

Even the adverts on the television tell us that Cows graze on grass to produce milk, which we need to drink to remain healthy, well that’s a joke. Cows are artificially inseminated,(raped basically,) to keep them pregnant. When the Calves are born, they are taken away from their Mothers and it is this process which keeps the Mums milk flowing. These milk saturated Cows are then exploited and milked up to 3 times a day. The milk, which also contains puss and blood is then treated and is sold in our supermarkets. Why do you participate in all this ? If you were to see a Female human being exploited, or treated in this way, would you stand by and allow it, would you buy Human milk to take home and give to your children?

We live in a so called modern and compassionate society and world, this mass slaughter and total exploitation of our fellow beings and animals which we say we love is not a modern way of thinking though, its barbaric and each time you buy a joint of meat, some milk and many other forms of animal flesh and liquids, you are supporting the slaughter, murder and exploitation of these innocent beings, plain and simple.

I can justify everything that I eat, drink and wear, CAN YOU ?

Please think about every thing you eat and drink. Stop the disassociation.

Thank you.

John Awen.   / | \

New Beginnings.

In a world where we now have more communicative devices than ever before, it is such a shame that we, as a collective, are talking less face to face. Unfortunately nowadays, people are too busy doing nothing and lack real communication skills.

Behind a keyboard, so many individuals become extremely brave and morph into an illusion of their own making, sadly though, it is becoming fairly main stream for these often very insecure beings, to write and publish online, fake, derogatory, libellous and slanderous articles. Many of these articles are totally fabricated and serve only to slight others. I feel pity for these individuals and they clearly have nothing else going on in their own lives, that they have to concentrate on pulling apart others who are innocent. A lot of these feelings stem from their own jealousies and insecurities with who they are, then, rather than looking at themselves, they project out their own problems onto others, a way of somehow imbuing themselves with fake self importance, bigoted and narcisstic, egotistical behaviour and traits.

I have personal experience of this cyber bullying, so I can write about this and give my personal opinion and account of it.

Having had lies and deceit written online about me, I have recently been successful in a libel and defamation of character case, which I won and the offending articles were removed by google.

Thank you to all my friends and supporters who never doubted me, but believed and supported me totally. Thank you also, to those who felt they had to be derogatory and spread deceit about me. You sent me negativity in a cowardly form, which I turned into positivity and used it to aid me in my own growth and on my journey in this life.

I now put the lessons I have learnt from this, along with all the other lessons I have learnt in life, to good use and now use it all as a way of only helping others who may be having, or experiencing similar issues and troubles.

None of us should try, or attempt to slight, or slander another. If we cannot, as a collective group, support and help each other, then its a sad world.

The old saying of ‘ Empty vessels make the loudest noise,’ has never rang truer in this day and age of cowardly individuals who obviously lead empty lives and have empty souls.

 

Much love to you all and Thank you.  / | \

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As I watch, view and absorb the world around me, the people in it and how many of them go around their business, I am often left speechless and wondering what hope their is.

Why is it that so many people profess to be something they clearly are not ? Held in a permanent stasis of ever decreasing circles, constantly casting false aspersions and slander into the world, making unfair and brash statements about others, more often than not, without solid and tangible evidence to back anything up, it really is a shame and renders me often with my head in my hands, hoping that one day, these poor souls might grasp the reason they are here in the first place, after all without hope, faith and belief, there is nothing.

I have looked around at delved into several different religions, none of which resonated within me and left me empty, without being able to nourish my being with truthful answers, so I looked elsewhere.

Having looked into several so called new age beliefs, I ventured into the path of Druidry. I soon found out though, that this can be more oppressive and controlling than several religions can be. I soon realised that being a Druid is a state of heart and mind, it is not about belonging to some sanctimonious old boys club and paying out extortionate amounts of money simply to be able to have an A4 laminated certificate, it goes way beyond that and once again, so many seem to be unable to comprehend and realise this fact.

I see so many people, who claim to be this, that and whatever, more often than not, they claim these titles just to fuel their own ego’s and feel self important. I speak to many people and unfortunately, so many people fall short when asked about their beliefs, many haven’t even got the basic knowledge of how often a full moon is, let alone any other parts of the equation that all go hand in hand with being true to who you are, what you do and inevitably profess outwardly to supposedly being.

It really does become so farcical and I find it insulting to my intelligence, but then again, these people are only really lying to and fooling themselves.

We live in a world now that has more communicative devices than ever before, yet people on the whole are actually talking to one another less, how does that work ?

Once again, we have to realise that we are all on different paths and journeys, therefore we are all on different levels of understanding, realisation and comprehension. So I can see that this is the way and once again, we have to realise that so many people are just not who and what they openly profess to be and simply tend to hide behind labels, which they attempt to wear like a badge of honour, maybe in the hope that they will never be questioned, who knows ?

If we are not open, honest and truthful to ourselves, then there is absolutely no hope that we can be honest with anybody else, it just cannot happen.

People really do need to look within themselves and realise that this life is not a game and is so sacred, precious and we are all very blessed and honoured to have it.

People really do need to start waking up and walking their talk.

 

Thank you.  / | \

Cloak of Autumn.

 

 

 

 

 

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As we approach Samhain, effectively and historically the end of one year and the start of another, we are imbued with a magical transition, on all levels, both physically and metaphysically.

The beautiful colourations in the natural world are now changing as the seasons enter another phase and turn of the wheel. The vibrant greens, yellows, reds and a plethora of other bright and majestic colours are now giving way and changing to hues of copper, oranges, browns, almost a dulling throughout, but still the vibrancy can be seen and admired throughout the natural landscape of our physical world.

Trees that have been adorned with lush green leaves, are now letting go, shaking off their foliage, giving way once again, to the skeletal shapes and forms that stand and dominate much of our countryside, a time of retreat, almost a stasis, as they now become bare and conserve their energies over the upcoming colder and wintry months ahead.

A leafy carpet of russet colours, mixed with faded greens, browns and yellows, are all that remain now of the leaves that clung on to the boughs and branches of many of our majestic Ent like trees, showing us once again, that time is of a constant, and as life ends, on all levels, a time of rest, retreat and relaxation is needed in order to gain strength for the next growing period which is to come.

The Celtic new year, or Samhain as so many people know it, invokes the life, death and rebirth way of life, which as we are all aware, is prominent, a daily part of our existence and a constant within our lives.

A time to honour those who have gone before, remember them fondly and in all we do. A very special, magickal and extremely sacred time indeed.

I personally find it very cathartic, inspirational and extremely poignant, that just as we enter this period, I am now starting to take notes and write my fourth book, which is to be called     ‘ Ancestor’s.’

May all the Ancestors that have ever lived and breathed inspire me as I embark upon what is to be another very special journey, which writing, or creating something out of nothing always is.

 

Thank you.  / | \