The Druid Order, The awen

The Awen is composed of three rays representing a triad, coloured green, white and blue; the three grades of Druidism: Ovate, Bard and Druid; power, wisdom and love. It is also the first letter of the English alphabet, from which all the other letters are created. All things in life have a threefold constitution or a threefold sequence of growth - mineral, vegetable and animal, positive, negative and neutral. Almost all of the principles of Druidism are communicated in triads or trinities. To understand the truth, to love the truth, to maintain the truth.

At Stonehenge the midsummer sunrise line is flanked by winter low and high moon rise lines. A very basic triad is the Sun, night and day - night and day are illusions because they are dependent upon where the Sun is, the same is true of present, past and future.

To study the art of asking questions we could apply the triadic principle. In the same way that the whole tree is in the seed, then the whole answer is in the question. We ask questions first about me and then about not me and on to a question about us. All three levels are inherent in all questions, but we only usually hear the question about me. The same applies to language study, a traditional Druid teaching vehicle - language is interpreted on three levels: the literal (me), the symbolic (not me), and the hieroglyphic (us); form, mind and the source. The literal translation we refer to as the letter which kills the meaning; the meaning is with the hieroglyph; the symbolic is the mediator between the two. The symbol is the ‘not me’ between me and the source, it is the interpreter of source into form.

There are always three points in a marriage: male, female and purpose. Remember that night and day are illusions, the Sun is reality. Me and not me is an illusion and us is the reality. The source of power is with the purpose, the us of the relationship - male and female are illusions. The purpose of their relationship is what you marry two people to, not to each other. Ultimately me and not me have to come to terms with us as the source of their power. There are three points present at the conception of a child - the mother and father and the power source, the Self of the child.

There are three great religious movements developing three stages of consciousness in humanity: Power, Wisdom and Love. We developed the power to act, the wisdom to put it into practice and the love to use it. Three great schools followed the path of the Sun across the Earth beginning with China, followed by India, and Egypt, which in turn gave rise to the fourth school being formed now. These three great schools are mirrored in the three periods from 0-7 years, 7-14, 14-21 - 3 phases of the development of consciousness, plus a fourth, the adult. Through the trinity the child becomes a human being. In Christianity, the three steps to the cross, with a fourth stage, rebirth through transformation into a human being.

The chakra system, called churches (chuchres) in the west, follows the same triadic pattern. There are seven major chakras divided up into two sets of three, one set being a reflection of the other, plus one in the middle representing the Sun - in Roman names Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun or Earth, Venus, Mercury, Moon.

The year is divided into 12 astrological signs, these in turn are divided into 3 sets of four signs. Each set ends with a fire sign, each fourth sign goes forth. The first set begins at New year with Capricorn and ends with Aries. This is related to the grade of Ovate or young shoot. The second set begins with Taurus and ends with Leo, this is related to the grade of Bard. Out in the open, the world of colour and art. The third section begins with Virgo and ends with Sagittarius. This is the grade of Druid, the inner world of thought and sound.

All of these schools or phases have a purpose and a personality in the same way that each person has - they each have a specific part in the whole story. They are not separate any more than the three stages of infant, juvenile and teenager are. Ovates are part of the power school (infants), Bards are part of the wisdom school (juveniles) and Druids are part of the love school (becoming an adult) - the three steps to I am. So the Awen is a symbol of the great unity, a ruler for measuring consciousness. The three become unified as one.

Amen, Amenta, Awen.

The Awen