Blogs
Hello everyone. At last I have got enough done of my dreadful backlog of jobs to have time to attend to blogs etc. So there is some catching up to be done. Easiest way to do that is to post here the general letter I sent with Christmas cards as there was no chance to write proper letters this year.
Events overtook me at the end of November. I was quite happily awaiting an op for a new knee and the surgeon had promised me I would be in his six spots before Christmas.. Then I went for a pre-op appointment and my heart, which had been behaving impeccably since having a change of tablets, decided to go wonky and start missing beats again. So I got sent for an ECG and the anaesthetist decided he wasnt happy and I got given extra pills and removed from the list as unsuitable for operation. The pills put the heart right but while I was waiting for them to relent the knee swelled up enormously and I couldnt put my foot to the ground to get to bed. Fortunately I have an emercency button and was rescued two very kind paramedics who gave me morphine and carted me off to hospital. It turned out that it had been bleeding into the joint and I spent a couple of days packed round with ice and two more evenings on morphine as it did a replay each time. My dear friend Emma, thank heavens, moved in while I was away and has beem coming daily to feed ducks and sheep , walk dogs and post my amazon books [that is what in the absence of any teaching keeps the wolf from the door]. Ive more or less recovered from it all now and am back on the list but I simply dare not set foot on the sheets of ice outside my door and my poor car is sitting under the snow. The big freeze started the first day of my week in hospital so I wouldnt dare try to start it till it thaws as it is diesel and I expect that had frozen to a jelly.
Apart from all that things are OK. I am going to publish a book of Welsh poetry, not mine but the poems written by my neighbours uncle, who was killed in 1917, is famous and out of copyright.. His nephew approves and a friend who is a native Welsh speaker is proof reading for me. Im also publishing a book of short stories for a friend of a friend, this one, unlike the friends books that I publish free as he helps technically, will probably earn me some money.
My own writing is going on all right and I have several childrens animal books out there and plans for further ones. In particular I need to do a whole lot more illustrations. That takes a lot more time than the writing.
Assuming the ice thaws -----------.
But then back came the snow and all froze again. Neither I nor my friend, with whom I was going to spend Christmas Day, could get out at all. Emma returned to her three mile daily round trip and I tried to make use of the time by doing jobs that I'd been avoiding. One of these that I made a lot of progress with was putting my Russian, French and Welsh video films onto DVD to save space. Threw away a lot that I decided were not a lot of good to anyone and gave the Russian and Welsh ones to learners of the respective languages.
I also started catching up on my accounts, but that being my most hated job, is still an ongoing project. That's what I should be doing now.
Between the necessary work I did very litle writing except in my head but I did fins an interesting diversion. One of my very good friends has Alzheimers and now cannot concentrate on anything that requires extended thinking. The other two of the trio who all live together have a hard time keeping her happy and occupied. Her one occupation that she still loves is taking her beloved dog outside for a game. So I made carefully sized photos of him and all their previous dogs and pasted them onto children's large piece jig saws. Fortunately she loves these and Mary, to whose lot it often falls to keep her amused, loves both jig saws and dogs si I am quite pleased with my new skill. It drove me mad at first, partly because concurrently I tried painting over a real size adult jigsaw with acrylics copying a favourite photo of theirs for Mary's birthday, which is Christmas Day. problem! I never realized how tough and stretchy dried acrylic was and so spent hours cutting it apart. I also did a dog one for Emma but, as I am better at dogs than people, that had fewer layers and so was not quite so infuriating. [see picture]
Now I'd better really get back to the accounts.
No Wales v England on the 4th unfortunately But we will get to see Wales v Scotland and Wales v Ireland. Not a very satisfactory state of affairs imho...but its something.
We are pleased to announce that the winner of our Karl Jenkins ticket giveaway competition is AmeriCymru member Michael Nies of New York. The winner has been notified via email. To all of you who entered the competition but did not win we wish better luck next time. Meanwhile congratulations/llongyfarchion Michael 
The lucky winner is entitled to 2 FREE TICKETS from Distinguished Concerts International for the Concert for Peace - Celebrating the Spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall on January 17th 2011. The concert will feature performances of 'Stabat Mater' and 'Gloria'. Read our interview with Karl Jenkins here
An Interview With Mara Freeman - Celtic Spirit Journeys Announces Wales Tour!
By Ceri Shaw, 2011-01-12
Mara Freeman is from Britain and has been a leading teacher of Celtic spirituality for over twenty years. She is an initiate of the Western Mystery Tradition, an Archdruidess of the Irish Druid Clan of Dana and Honored Bard with the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. AmeriCymru spoke to Mara about her life, work and the forthcoming Celtic Spirit Journey Tour of Wales .
AmeriCymru: You have been a leading teacher of Celtic spirituality for more than twenty years. How did you first become involved?
Mara Freeman: I was obsessed by Celtic music, myth and folk-lore from a very early age. I sang and wrote songs and plays and in the Celtic vein, long before the Celtic culture revival of the 1970s. When I was old enough to stick out a thumb, I hitch-hiked to Ireland, Scotland and Wales as often as I could, spending many days walking the land and talking to people, listening to their stories and their music.
When I moved to California in 1979, I fetched up in a pristine oak forest on a mountain near the sea, living very close to nature. After a while, though, I started longing for the sights and sounds of Britain and Ireland so I went back for a few months and travelled around ancient sites and sacred places with my then-husband, who was a photographer. When I got back to the States, I created a multi-image show of songs, music , poetry, images and live performance called Between the Earth and Sky, about the journey as an initiation into Earth Mysteries. Then we travelled around the Western United States putting on the show wherever we could in the communities we visited. I found that, of course, I had to do a bit of talking about a subject that a lot of people were very curious about and which was little known at that time (the mid 80s) so I began giving talks and doing quite a bit of storytelling, and leading simple community rituals on these occasions. One thing led to another, and soon I was giving my first workshops in Celtic spirituality. Around this time I was also writing essays on Celtic sacred ways for Parabola, the journal of myth and traditions, lecturing first at local universities and then nationally, and eventually this all led to being asked to write a book for Harper Collins.
AmeriCymru: Your book, Kindling the Celtic Spirit has been hailed as the best modern introduction to Celtic spirituality and sacred traditions. Care to tell us a little more about it?
Mara: Well I guess you might call it a compendium of myth, story, and traditional teachings that celebrate the beauty and power of the Celtic earth-based wisdom tradition. Each chapter corresponds to a month of the sacred Celtic year and includes traditional poems, blessings, greetings, toasts, ancient lore, and guided meditations to inspire readers to reconnect with the rhythms of the natural world, and view the sacred as an integral part of every day as our Celtic ancestors did.
I wanted it to be a usable handbook for people to connect with a way of perceiving the Earth as a living, interconnected web of life in which all living beings plants, animals, and all the many bio-systems are recognized for their inherent value and not just resources for the human race to plunder. Our ancestors from the Celtic countries kept this world-view alive for many centuries despite their cultures being dominated by a hierarchical church system. Until recently, much of this native wisdom remained hidden and unknown to most people in the modern world, and seekers sought for spiritual nourishment in foreign paths Native American or Tibetan, for instance which do not necessarily serve the Western spirit, and so Kindling the Celtic Spirit presents a way for many people to reconnect with their own ancestral sacred traditions. Although the book has been out for ten years now, I still get emails and letters from people, mostly Americans, saying that reading it was like coming home, so I guess it does what I set out to do.
AmeriCymru: Celtic Spirit Journeys offers tours of Wales and you have one coming up this year in June. What form do these tours take and where might readers go to find more information?
Mara: Yes indeed! I moved back to Britain in 2007 and chose to settle in West Wales which has been my spiritual home since I first crossed the Severn Bridge now over 40 years ago and wended my way to the magical west the Preseli Hills and the rocky coastal cliffs of Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. The tour is a ten-day journey called Enchanted Wales: Land of Myth and Magic and takes us in a circle from Cardiff to the southwest coast and up to Snowdonia, over to Anglesey and through the Berwyn Mountains before heading down through the Brecon Beacons back to Cardiff. Basically we spend half the time in the south and half in the north. I dont think I will ever get over how much variety there is in such a small country as Cymru, from snow-capped mountains, misty islands, green hills, beautiful rivers, deep lakes, quiet country lanes and towns that still retain their medieval character. The focus of the tour is on the ancient sacred places from the Neolithic era onwards, so we will be visiting stone circles and dolmens, Celtic hill-forts and settlements, holy wells and medieval churches and abbeys, to name but a few of our destinations. One of the really exciting things about Cymru is the way in which the landscape is so rich in myth and legend, still alive with the stories of the Mabinogi, Myrddin/Merlin and King Arthur in an almost palpable way. Owain Glyndwr and Prince Llewellyn lie buried in the land but their spirits roam the hills because the people keep them alive in their hearts.
I gave this tour last year for the first time and everyone had a fantastic time. One of the interesting things was the way in which Wales inspired so much creativity in our guests. One woman wrote a marvellous poem which encapsulates her experience and may give Americymru members a sense of the deep magical experience Wales affords. (link to Enchanted Wales in Feathers, the poem below.) Another has posted her photo-journal on a website with some marvellous images. (link to http://susa-morgan-black.net/zenphoto/best-of-wales / )
This years tour is from June 6th to 16th and we still have a few places left if any Americymru members are interested. You can learn more about the tour at http://www.celticspiritjourneys.com/wales.php .
AmeriCymru: What kind of experience does Celtic Spirit Journeys seek to provide for its patrons?
Mara: The emphasis is on Pilgrimage as a path to the sacred, so we only ever take small groups (up to 12 at the most) and we visit each of the sites as a way to enter into a communion with the spirits of the land, approximating as near as possible the way the ancestors would have approached them, with simple ceremony and offerings. I talk about the history, and tell the local legends and stories of the places, and make sure everyone has plenty of time for reflection and just being present to the Spirit of Place. Many people report profound and transformative experiences on our journeys. We always include some well-known local presenters and entertainers along the way, for instance harpist Delyth Evans, who last summer delighted us with music in the drawing-room of Warpool Court Hotel, St Davids, overlooking the sea, and Earth Mysteries author Robin Heath, who led us on a terrific adventure over the Preselis to give us a first-hand demonstration of his theories in his new book, Bluestone Magic. (Link to Robin: http://www.skyandlandscape.com/ ) I should probably add that we also have a lot of fun and great food, and stay in beautiful locations, too!
AmeriCymru: You are also the founder of the Avalon Mystery School. Can you tell us more about its program and mission?
Mara: I founded the Avalon Mystery School after many years of working with the magical current that has its source in the deep river of native Celtic and British spiritual tradition. The work encompasses the wisdom of British and Welsh goddesses, particularly Morgen le Fay and the Nine Sisters, the Mysteries of Myrddin, the Faery Realm and the Sacred Land, the teachings of the Druids and the Quest for the Holy Grail. We offer a comprehensive training program in the sacred magical arts that can be taken at a distance.
The First Grade offers a thorough introduction to the Mysteries of Britain and teaches the groundwork of the magical arts especially how to connect with the faery race, ancestors and goddesses. In the Second Grade, students expand and extend their knowledge and techniques of the magical arts into the Green World (Nature), learning how to open up to and interact with trees, plants, animals and the elemental kingdom. In the Third Grade, serious study and participation in advanced aspects of the Western Magical Tradition including the stellar and angelic realms, teaches the student how to reach higher states of consciousness and to mediate wisdom and healing into the world through working closely with inner contacts.
I believe that now, more than ever, is the time for us to learn how to bring the wisdom, power and beauty of Avalon back into our fragmented world. The Avalonian path is nothing less than the conscious realization of the self as connected with all beings, visible and invisible, on the great Tree of Life, and ultimately with the Divine Source. You can find out more by visiting the Avalon Mystery School website at www.avalonmysteryschool.net
AmeriCymru: We learn from your bio that you are a practitioner of the ancient Celtic healing art of Anamcara . What is Anamcara and how does it work?
Mara: Anamcara is an old Irish word meaning "soul friend." I use my clairvoyant ability to tune in deeply to the psyche of the person seeking understanding about the nature of their life at the deepest level. My 30 years training as an astrologer and 20 years as a fully-licensed psychotherapist also come into play. I look at the "big picture" of the soul's journey, not only in this lifetime but from past lives too. I also connect with the spirit guides who support us throughout this journey for the growth and evolution of the soul, or essential Self. I give many readings over the phone to people in all parts of the world. You can learn more at http://www.chalicecentre.net/anamcara.htm .
AmeriCymru: What's next for Mara Freeman?
Mara: At the moment I am finishing writing a book on the mythos of the Holy Grail, from its origins in early Welsh and Irish literature to the later Arthurian cycle and down into modern times. I am trying to get it done this winter, before the garden calls We grow most of our own food here in our valley and with the short growing season, it can get quite full on! I also have another book about the Mabinogi in the landscape in the works, and Im looking forward to Springtime when I can get out and have a good excuse to go walking in the wilds again.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Mara: The message is: Remember! . . . And I will let Waldo Williams, whose memorial stands tall on the Preseli hills at Mynachlog-ddu, tell you why. Dont have the original Welsh version, Im afraid, but here it is in English translation by Vernon Jones, erstwhile schoolmaster of Nevern School:
Cofio by Waldo Williams
(Remembering)
Once small minute before the sun goes to its horizon,
One tender minute before the evening comes to its end,
To remember the forgotten things
lost now in the dust of bygone times,
Like the foam of a wave that breaks on a lonely beach,
Like the song of the wind where there is no ear to hear,
I know they are calling to us in vain,
The old forgotten things of mankind.
The deeds and art of early generations,
Tiny dwelling places and large halls,
The fine legends shattered for centuries,
The gods that no ones heard of now.
And the little words of disappeared languages,
Lively in the mouths of men they were,
And pretty to the ear in the prattle of tiny children,
But no ones tongue may summon them again.
O countless generations of the earth,
With their divine dream and fragile divinity,
Does there not stay but silence to the heart,
That once knew joy and sorrow?
Often at nightfall when Im alone,
There comes a longing to know you, every one,
Does something still hold in the memory and heart,
The old forgotten things of the family of man?
*************************************************************
Enchanted Wales in Feathers (Wales, July 2010) by Alison Sinclair
The feathers tell the winged story.
Birds wheeling, hovering, diving, swooping, hopping,
singing, twittering, hooting, and cawing,
For each sacred site a winged guardian:
Wren shoots out from within the Tinkinswood dolman,
A ray of light from a dark ancestral past;
Doves and swallows fly among the ribs of the Tintern abbey skeleton,
Messengers of hope in the decay of age;
Gulls cry above St. Nons holy well,
A sweet reminder of life's salty waters;
A downy hawk feather hidden by the Druids cave to cradle a sleeping seer,
While a Merlin soars over a seashore shell-like vault
Hidden dolman of the waves-
For the sea mother loves her children, and brings them all back under
When life grows too long above;
Crows guard the fort of Dinas Bran, a place to see the truth and speak it,
While the ravens rise up in the wind over Angelsey Island, last refuge of the druids;
Sky larks hover ecstatic over Mitchells Fold stone circle,
In, out and through the grey clouds, where a mandorla frames the sun.
The mythic eagle of Snowdonia, sun glinting off his wings,
We see him not but find him in the Mabinogi tales.
Feathers bring the stories home,
Dropped in a miraculous moment
Discovered in a instant
Of flight, wind and sight.
We learn the language of the birds and don our feathered capes
That we may whisper through their plumes once more,
And preen and stroke, to feel the filaments of their wind-borne dreams.
Vendors Wanted For West Coast Eisteddfod in L.A. - Book Now For Preferential Rate!!
By Ceri Shaw, 2011-01-12
Register Early for your Exhibitor Booth at the 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod: Welsh Festival of Arts!! Reserve by May 1, 2011 before the prices go up!
The 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod: Welsh Festival of Arts includes open competitions in poetry, voice, comedy, performance art, and storytelling. The Welsh and Celtic festival will accompany a free outdoor marketplace, an art show, film screenings, lecture, our first annual Welsh leadership competition, Welsh games, food and drink.
Past guests/judges/panelists include Niall Griffiths, Chris Keil, Lloyd Jones, David Western, Peter Griffiths, Peter Thabit Jones, Glyn Davies, and many more!
Now through 2011 exhibitor space is the following:
Eisteddfod Single space booth 10 x 10 space is $100
Eisteddfod Double space booth 20 x 10 space is $180
Reserve your space now, as prices are guaranteed to go up after May 1, 2011!
Registrations will be accepted on a first come, first served basis by mail or email ( americymru@gmail.com ).
Exhibitor applications are available now and can be viewed or downloaded at the bottom of this post.
For the latest news about the Festival, please visit www.americymru.net
Thank you for your time,
Lorin Morgan-Richards, LA Event Coordinator ( lorinmorg@aol.com )
323-384-2429
More about the festival:
The Meriwether Lewis Memorial Eisteddfod Foundation organizes the West Coast Eisteddfod, a modern eisteddfod for the west coast of North America. The MLMEF is partnering with AmeriCymru and a Raven Above Press to bring you the 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod: Welsh Festival of Arts, which encompasses art competitions, film festival, outdoor marketplace and much more.
The 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod: Welsh Festival of Arts will include open competitions in poetry, voice, comedy, performance art, and storytelling. The festival will accompany a free outdoor marketplace, an art show, film screenings, lecture, our first annual Welsh leadership competition, Welsh games, food and drink. In addition, A Raven Above Press will develop and produce a book of artwork by presenters in the art show focusing on Welsh mythology and legend.
The West Coast Eisteddfod celebrates Welsh and Welsh American traditions in art, history, language, and oral and literary competition. We will hold an election of our first annual young adult representative and pay tribute to Welsh entrepreneurs and Welsh Americans. The expected attendance is 2,500 through the course of three days and will be open to the public.
The festival is to celebrate Welsh identity and expression. In doing so, it fosters positive self-esteem and creativity for the benefit of the greater community. The public will be encouraged to participate in these classes and competitions displayed in the Welsh tradition. Welsh Americans will benefit from learning about their culture through ongoing workshops and activities. The designated young adult representative will be evaluated on personality, talent, and community leadership. The appointed person will therein represent the West Coast Eisteddfod in the United States for one year as an upstanding role model, assisting in addressing issues important to the community and will help promote a meaningful association with Wales.
Clarification Statemant on Sign Up Issues - Should All Change ( For the Better ) Tomorrow!
By Ceri Shaw, 2011-01-12
From the Ning Blog:-
"For some time now, we've been talking about the progress of our project to replace the existing cross-Ning ID system used to sign up and sign in across all Ning Networks with Custom Network IDs. We're happy to announce that we're planning on releasing the final piece of this project tomorrow!
The new Custom Network IDs will mean much more control over your brand and your Ning Network's sign up experience. This also resolves the sign up issues some new members have been experiencing. And, as a bonus, it will allow us to add a slew of new features that we previously could not like giving Ning Creators the ability to delete members and letting new members sign up via Twitter.
What's changing tomorrow
Today, members must use the same password for every Ning Network they join. And, when they change their email address or password, that change must take place on all Ning Networks they've joined across Ning.Starting tomorrow, that will begin to change. After we complete the release tomorrow
- Existing members will still have the same email address and password, but anyone who changes their email address or password (including Network Creators) will only be changing it for that specific Ning Network.
- New members will be creating an account on your Ning Network, not a Ning account that works across all Ning Networks, so they'll be able to use any password they wish for your network.
Issues to expect during release
With such a massive change to the way sign up and sign in information is stored on the Ning Platform, it's going to take a few hours to complete this release. During tomorrow's release, theerror message that has traditionally been seen by brand-new members who enter an incorrect Ning ID password when signing up (again, those folks who have joined multiple Ning Networks over time), will instead see this message:"The email address has already been registered. Please choose another."As soon as the release is complete, these members should be able to sign up regardless of their password choice. They shouldn't run into any error messages.
Following this release, of course, all new members who join your Ning Network will have an account an email address and a password that is specific to your network . This should greatly enhance the experience of your members and eliminate any guesswork about members who may be experiencing any issues signing up.
We thank you for your patience, and we look forward to completing it!"
Happy New Year!
From Auryaun:
So much has happened since the year began! First, I want to thank the winners of the "i am me/am i not?" promo! I loved reading about your stories and I feel enriched by your sharing. I know I have the best fans in the world!
Here's to having a spectacular 2011 where nothing holds us back from pursuing the best of what we want!
Love,
Auryaun
(aka Noelle Hughes)
Video update
The "Deeper Understanding" video is coming along nicely! We are at the point where we could use some help in the following areas:
- Various extras for filming (see below)
- Camera people
The extras we'd like to track down are:
- An elephant
- A belly dancer
- A Maharani
Yup, that's right!
Cool stuff for you if you can find these items.
Bragging rights. Yeah? Who else could say they got an ELEPHANT for a video?!?
We got hoodies. Awesome, faboo, super-thick, high-quality and soft, with the cover art for "i am me/am i not?" distinctive and cool.
We got t-shirts. Your choice of "i am me/am i not?" artwork or "broken heart" art. High-quality cotton-poly blend fabric.
We got travel mugs with the "i am me/am i not?" artwork. Auryaun says, "Been using mine for nearly two years now and I get compliments on it wherever I go. Super coolio."
We got a super-cool CD. Have you heard it yet? Yeah. We bet you haven't. It's really, really, really good.
Auryaun says, "I suck at self-promotion. You suck for not having bought the awesome CD yet."
How to Not Suck
Auryaun here.
Hey what's up with the telling me how much you like my voice or my music but then not writing a review in iTunes or Amazon ?
You Will Want to Know Me
But hey, guess what? I'm gonna be a bazillionaire and you're gonna want to be my best friend. You wanna know why?
No, not because of the video.
No, not because of the album. Although these are incredibly cool and the main reason for my writing this to you.
It's because I got the most amazing fricken idea this weekend. I'm gonna blow your mind all over your kitchen. Nobody else is doing what I'm gonna do.
Not.
One.
Single.
Person.
And then everybody is gonna know about my music and you will be the coolest person you know because you can say you knew me back when.
Your Chance is Now
You not only get to be an early adopter, you get to be somebody who participated in the making of the coolest fricken video ever made.
So who do you know that can get me an elephant?
Preferably to be filmed walking through the Arizona desert with the mesas in the background with a Maharani on its back, but I'll settle for a green screen.
Gotta have the Maharani on its back, though.
Email me .
On Amazon: The CD That Started it All
Auryaun's CD, i am me/am i not? available through Amazon .
As always, we look forward to hearing from you !It's true.
Please comment below if you know an elephant, or know someone who either has an elephant or knows someone who knows or has an elephant, or wants to participate in the video in some other way.
We do also need other extras for the video. Don't forget the belly dancer!
Read more about the 2011 NAFOW: http://americymru.net/group/northamericanfestivalofwales2011clevelandohio#ixzz1AexWh0v8
