The Grove - Koad

Bruce Clifton

The Celtic Bnwyfre-Ogma Energies

The Grove - Koad

​Pronunciation: Cod
Moon Phase:   Not applicable the Grove is for the 12 houses
Moon:  12 houses
Letter:   Ea
Title: Not applicable as this is a place
Height: not applicable
Influence:  Androgynous
Age:   Time serves no purpose here, age is not applicable.
Legend:  Thoughtfulness. Consideration. Poise. Wisdom. Bnwyfre.
Diety: Ogma
Element: Spirit
Chakra's: Heart Chakra
​Aura: Orange
Medicinal Qualities:  Community Healing. Resolution. Nurturing. Self development.
Animal Entities: Queen Bee, Cock Pheasant, Door mouse, Squirrel. (by proxy of Salmon)

The spiritual essence of the Grove comes from the community if feeds, spiritual, village, school or gathering of like minded individuals. The Grove is recognised the world over, as a harmonious, respectful joining of energies. The Romans were so determined to harness this mis-understood strength surrounding the groves, they created a religion based on the beliefs of the druids groves.

The Celts were a democracy and as such public meetings were held in Groves. A clearing within the forest protected from the elements. A vast majority of our British Isles was covered by dense forest, a clearing within the forest was appreciated by all and as such was also appreciated as a sacred place.  A druid school could have as many as 3000 students. Three thousand students of all ages coming together for one reason... "To learn..."

It would have been this same Grove that public meetings would be held to decide law, and to decide punishment for those that broke the law. The immense energy that was integrated into this clearing has sadly been lost in our persistance for progress, The Druidic culture of public meetings and democratic building of communities has somewhat been lost over the ages. To meet in one place and celebrate at least every six weeks, for students to congregate regularly, for the community to come together to make decisions, to uphold law and pass judgement, for warring communities to make peace and respect this most sacred of places. In todays rapid society, with the ever increasing pace of life we gather in much smaller groups and we gather for seperate reasons in seperate places, school, church, meeting halls, theatres, court. etc.etc.
A Grove created by the Druid of a region would have been a place of sacred energy, the community energy infused into the place and also the Druid with each of the three enjoying the successes that longevity and continuity brings. The Romans directive upon invading Prydain was to break up and destroy all of the groves, such was their fear of the druids.

The word druid stems from the word duir meaning Oak door, with the mighty oak taking the role of alpha male, king of the forest, it is little wonder that the acorn is also held with high reverence. The symbolism behind the acorn takes on the meaning of fertility, fecundity and eternal life. It is also worth noting that before the iron age a mature oak would have created many problems to any carpenter, such is the strength of the trunk, it would have presented more problems than it was worth without strong tools to craft the hardwood of a mature Oak. The Holm Oak will hold onto its leaves throughout the seasons and new leaves will force the old ones to fall, The Holm Oak sets the appearance of being evergreen, it is also the slowest growing and one of the longest living Oak trees, these features contribute towards it being representative of eternal life. Without any shadow of doubt this tree would have been one of the more common established features of the Druids Grove. It is also worth noting that 1200 years is not an unusual age for these trees, rare yes but unusual no! One generation of the Holm Oak seperates the present time to the time of Jesus Christ walking this Earth.

To accept the Holm Oak as the central feature of the Druids Grove, we can look at the trees surrounding it, with the strength and guidance of the oak the surrounding trees will bring their own merits. The grove changing, maturing and developing with the seasons. A Birch seeing up to four of our generations is but a quarter of the life of an oak, this brings a different perspective to how a grove lives within the past, present and future.

Stonehenge is one of the more well known groves but our British landscape has not changed to such an extent in 2000 years that the original sites of Druidic groves can not be recognised. Essex is known to be one of the flattest counties in Britain the people of Essex are priviledged to be able to have such a wealth of knowledge and experience beneath their feet, the mysteries of the aligned churches in south essex are not so mysterious when you consider the romans determination to destroy the sacred groves of the druids. (They built churches on spiritual sites.) With the groves created on natural energy centres this being where ley lines cross. The druidic secrets of good health and aligning the bodies energy centres (chakras) with ley lines and the Earths energy centres, the mysteries of the south essex churches don't seem so mysterious. The druidic practices of Bnwyfre aligning life force energies were the cause of much fear within the romans. 

(Nordic legend, the squirrel runs from the base of the hazelnut to the top of the tree to tell the gods the wisdom as given by the salmon such is his insistence on exagerating the truth as told to him by the salmon the gods made the waters of Ygdrassil run upwards and spoke with salmon directly. To this day Salmon make an annual pilgrimage to meet the gods and swim up river to meet them. Squirrel however has not learned not to gossip and spends his days climbing up and down trees looking for someone to listen.)

Ogham Tree Lore

Bruce Clifton

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