The Western Gate

Sacred Wild
Eylse Welles
LLewellyn Books

I noticed sometimes I dig Llewellyn books in the ribs with a gnarly pokey finger, sometimes its justified, in my opinion, and other times it’s not, in others opinion or sometimes when I’m humbly impressed.
Sacred wild – ‘An Invitation to connect with spirits of the land’.
Nature in the urban sprawl of the Avenues and Alleyways of London W10 where I live is difficult, but escape to the forests, the outdoors, is never taken for granted. With regards to the spirits of Nature, this is of personal and vital connection to me. Every ‘grimoire’ or creative output I dabble in is named in honour of ‘Devas Sublime.‘ In essence then, homage to and worship of the Spirit of Nature, the illuminated presence.
ON first thoughts before I actually opened a page I hope this book will give me insights into practical rewilding, reclaiming nature in the urban prison, how to attract wildlife and ‘connect with the crows’, as well as offering the meditative practice to ascend to the level of Nature consciousness even if albeit for but a glimpse, just to reaffirm, to know, to acknowledge the influence of barefoot connection, or root coupling etc.
Elyse Welles talks of Numina, in many respects the same as my Devas. Numina, could be termed the acknowledgement, from the root Numen. In essence that shift between the boundaries that separate us, the liminal space whose curtain is raised for us to merge even if only by looking at the reflection, the land of the Fae in the same place as this time, but not in this time or place, or is it better just to say Numina ~ the sacred nature/ sacred places.
Regardless of what the rest of the book will say or prompt, sometimes a single word evokes enough.
Worship of Nature in the first instance is the first fundamental step upon this dread path. It should be made clear of course, this isn’t some idyllic empathy, by means of tightly holding onto a tree with a smile, running through a meadow.
Nature is not the ice cream man offering gifts if you but smile at him, she is more akin to the child snatcher offering free lollipops to lure you onto a mountainous ridge before bringing forward rolling clouds and laughs at your predicament ~ now hopelessly stranded, she is upon the waves that, unrelenting and without mercy drags your healthy swimming carcass outwards against the supposed tide, she is the boiling unbearable heat of Summer, The freezing depths of winter. Until you have learnt and cursed nature for her cruelty just as couples in marriage eventually tear their hair out over anything that grates and annoys about their partner, she will never be understood. It isn’t Disneyland. And, all the better for it.
Throughout the book Elyse give exercises. The first being, to sit by your favourite tree… ahem, the second to step outside when it is raining, dance meditate, and prance about like Gene Kelly. I’m not being sarcastic, (you are !), there is value in this work though I would go further. Find the darkest and angriest looking tree in the middle of a huge forest, and only when you are hopelessly lost should you settle down to get acquainted. And as for dancing in the rain, certainly, go to the rain .. but where shelter isn’t but a few steps away. Nature should be met on her terms, where we are vulnerable and at her mercy.
In terms of the idea of Animism, that all things inherently embody ‘spirit’. There is differential, between, Animals ( Fauna) and Nature (Flora), there is difference betweenElementals and what Elyse describes as Egregore~ the archetypal ‘spirit’ of the land, even if it be a certain lake or huge plain or haunted room once witness to barbaric scenes of evil~ for a contrasting example. Lakes, Mountains, deserts, caves, Glaciers, forest, meditative exercises on each can give an overall ‘idea’ of each personality, what that spirit evokes, and if you’re in the desert you might bump into ol’ Jove.
Each environment common to its spirit and all of them common by the banner of Nature.
Elyse guides through many practices, reflections and attuning the senses with the ‘other’. I wouldn’t agree that ‘Grounding with the land spirits’~ “barefoot if possible” is correct, barefoot essential ! Connecting with the land by means of insulated feet just isn’t really possible.
Without going through every exercise and anomaly, and positive ! in general it’s a book that could be considered a bit twee, but that said there is enough within to garner some ignition of desire to reacquaint with nature. There are some good points, sometimes I wish they’d be expanded and sometimes they illicit a sigh.
I would consider to understand the whole spirit of nature is to watch, observe, listen, smell for a period of 24 hours, yep. Late morning begin. Feel the turning as the Sun progresses over the sky, the height of its warmth, the busyness of nature and feel the dusk, the change, the silence, midnight, the depth of night, and then the glory of the rising sun. There are distinct and tangible changes in ‘the air,’ during this experiment, yes… 24 hours, its a long time with just a bare minimal means of sustenance, perhaps a big flask of water and some natural foods, fruits, honey (local) but it’s not something to be done once a month. Just doing it once in a whole lifetime would be enough, to actually ‘feel’ that shift.
There are then some aspects I disagree with in the book, Elyse warns us not to take soil from public land in case it’s illegal ~ fuck ’em I say, its land, I’m just moving bits of it ( a jarful at most) to another bit of land, it doesn’t belong to anyone, except the land.
There are perhaps lots of things that I would have liked to see/read more of, cultivation of the natural, rewilding, reclaiming the land, yes, trespassing ! Helping the wild animals, admittedly sparse in this urban environment, I guess though this is a tall ask, and being a world wide publication is in fact prohibitive, so perhaps then more guidance on what to do, bridging that fine line between the faunas independence and their growing reliance/ expectations for us to feed, and keep them safe and sheltered. By enabling someone or something we can actually be the cause of its future anguish and downfall.
There are tiptoeing issues around appropriation, particularly, in the author’s case, of the Native Americans. This is understandable, but not taboo surely. If the self is invited we will know, if a hand is raised to prevent progress, likewise we’ll know. Just because, being of the White European race, doesn’t mean we cannot try to connect. In the whole scheme of things humanity is in itself of demanded privilege and therefore the scourge of nature. How can we approach nature given that we , humans, have long sought to tame her and certainly exploit her. It is the same analogy with a white European holding out a hand to greet the Native American, The African, The Druid. Until we take away the layers of our conditioning of course we cannot progress. For my part/defence my recent ancestors were in workhouses and ‘rookeries, my grandfather joined the Royal marines in world war one, not because of some poster and sense of patriotism but because they gave him, for the first time in his life, a pair of boots. I cannot feel personal shame for ‘we’ have done to other creeds or indeed nature, it wasn’t done in my name but greed’s own. And, of course to agree with the privileged argument, in ancestry I have uncovered lords and ladies, Counts and kings, so we must have done something spectacular to be cast off into the dire Victorian poverty we became. Also, how do we draw the line at whether we ‘can’ be invited to lift the veil on other cultures, As a British person, can I feel free to delve in Druidism (For which there is absolutely NO written legacy) when in fact it is highly probably my ancestors were Saxons or Normans or even the Romans that massacred them. Where do we draw the line? what line. And who decides about the line? lines are made to trespass for the wayfarer. It is more a sin to try and tell people what they can only be, than what they shouldn’t be.
In adjustment therefore with regards to empathy with nature, first and foremost is the idea then, that you want, nothing ! I do not approach these exercises to make myself a bloody good ‘witch’ or a wizard of the elementals with power to control and spirits to kneel before my call. Where Nature is concerned, I want nothing. I don’t even want to understand her, if I’m supposed to know then I’m sure the keys will somehow be given. Nature is free, wild and untameable, she is not on the end of a telephone to answer our call. I can but stand back in awe at her beauty and always submit, only to her and for nothing … only and always that she does as she does..

Header illustration adapted from;-The Forest of Bere, c. 1808 J.M.W. Turner