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BRD101 - Chapter 4 - The Well of Beauty
BRD101 - Chapter 4 - The Well of Beauty
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BRD101
Cosmology - Part 1
Chapter 4
Write an essay (3-5 pages, double spaced) reflecting on your own relationship to the sacred
and/or divinity. How does it (or does it not) relate to what is written in this chapter of the
text?
This assignment has been especially difficult for me. Not because I found the chapter
hard to understand, or because I failed to connect with either the question or the content. I have
found it difficult because I struggle to find words I can use to adequately describe the sacred.
Divine and spiritual worlds. None of the words in the English language can come close to
describing the intense intimacy of my (or, I believe, anyone’s) interactions and relationship to the
addition, the feeling of failure brings fear of being mis-understood, or ridiculed. However, as
there is no growth without courage and trust, I am going to try to express my experiences and
In much the same way as the world is cyclic in all things, so is my interaction with the
divine/sacred. I travel through periods where I will have many very intense episodes of contact
which can often be euphoric. This can be anything from a few days to an entire season. During
these times, my meditations and contact feel as easy and graceful as closing my eyes and
opening my eyes to the luminous flood of images, sensations and insight. Following these
‘seasons’ of intensity, I will cycle through times of gentle, peaceful contact where I find myself
Throughout these cycles, I maintain a constant base line of gratitude and service. No
Menelluin - Lisa Crockett
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matter what the circumstances are, I give thanks to the universe for its blessings and do anything
I can to nurture the natural world. This could be picking up rubbish on the beach or hiking trail,
removing introduced weeds or planting a pollinator garden each year. I view this as a
relationship with the sacred, because I believe that all things natural in this world are gifts to us
from the divine, and are therefore sacred. I am trying (and rather failing) to see humans as
sacred as well. By doing what I can to protect and nurture and repair the natural world, both by
my actions and as an example, and giving thanks and living a life of gratitude, I reinforce my
I take this a step further through attempting worship of the divine in all my actions in the
mundane world. I try to ensure that anything I buy or make has a gentle outcome for our planet.
I also eat with mindfulness. What goes into my body needs to be in line with the gifts of the
harvest and benefit me and bolster my energy in order to stay on quest. While I love and respect
the rituals and large events such as epic meditations which connect me to the sacred and spiritual
worlds, I firmly believe that a life that is filled with small actions and constant gratitude cements
a graceful relationship that opens me to the worlds and experiences I cannot begin to describe.
Tom Cowan and Frank Mac Eowen’s philosophy of shape, shaper and shaping is an
interesting definition of human interaction with the Divine. Just as with the definition of the
Christian Holy Trinity, I find that true understanding of the concept dances alluringly just on the
borders of my understanding. For example, I do not agree that humans have the power to create
other than as a form of artistic expression. I believe that the ability to create lies with the Divine,
and our expressions of our understanding of the Divine are what we express through artistic
endeavours. I am a manifestation of the Divine and its ability to create or shape. I can easily
recognise that I am a shape, and, as such, part of my interaction with the Divine is being grateful
Menelluin - Lisa Crockett
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for my creation.
The Divine is also present in all of nature. I actively seek her in the trees and plants, the
water in all its forms, the animals and the sky. Through seeking the divine, and in keeping with
my practice of nurturing and protecting the natural world, I believe I am not being a shaper. On
the other hand, maybe these acts of worship which occur though recognition of the spirits, Gods
and Goddesses and their creations and my desire to protect and repair the damage that has been
Whether we choose to differentiate between sacred and divine, or choose to regard them
as different faces of the same power, I feel that my experience of both is one of conduit. In being
grateful, respectful and nurturing as a type of worship, I believe that my actions and thoughts
allow an increased presence of the divine in the world. Now we can take the idea of shape,
shaper and shaping further to include the Christian idea of the power of the creative Word. If the
creative Word can be correlated with the ability to manifest in the world through intent, then
Druids, by continuing to believe and act in accordance with the wisdom from the Divine and
sacred, would be able to also manifest the intent of the divine in the world.