08/12/2022
A Meditation for Peace on the Full Moon of Thursday 8th December 2022. The moon is full at 04.07 hours in Britain.
At this time of the last full moon of 2022, there is a deep need for peace for many people, many creatures and beings, many places. We live in ‘interesting’ times and it would be easy to become anxious and disheartened about everything going on in this beautiful world. How do we inspire others and find joy? How do we remember that living and loving is sacred? As people following a path of paganism, including druidry and witchcraft, we know there is something other than the mundane, something other than the news reports and the political shenanigans that leave us scratching our heads in disbelief. We can keep abreast of what is happening but can also use the tools at our disposal, such as immersing ourselves in nature and the divine, using meditation; divination; magic; ritual and ceremony to moderate the effects of living now, to build our inner strength and resilience, to bring about change.
As the moon comes to fullness this month, it looks over many people with wishes and gratitude for peace in all lives. Just like the sun and moon, peace and wellbeing are completely connected within each individual living being, not just for humans but for all life within each country; each continent, all of the land, the sea and the sky. Our full moon peace meditation is an opportunity to connect to the energy of the moon, to contemplate aspects and perceptions of peace, to really feel them and to reflect those out into the world, as the moon reflects the light of the sun in their perpetual partnership.
What is peace? As humans, naturally, we can relate it simply to a lack of worry about our personal physical, emotional or financial security, and the safety of our family and friends. In the triads collected by the controversial visionary and pacifist Iolo Morgannwg, and listed in the book Barddas, we can read that peace is linked with tranquility; truth; justice; love; mercy; gentleness; and goodness. One triad reads ‘Three things that will produce understanding and knowledge: peace towards everything; love towards all that is good; and to consider every nature, whether it be corporal or spiritual’. The triads relating to peace imply that it is part of the process in any personal enlightenment, and leads to a more just society.
Why do we relate to peace at the full moon? In some definitions of peace, it is synonymous with an absence of aggression, it is noiselessness; and stillness. These suggest peace is passive, but in living a peaceful life there are active choices of how we view the world and ourselves, how we act and respond. The waxing and full moon energy is a time of drawing up, expanding, completion and culmination – a time of action to fulfil a cycle of potential transformation in our lives, to be, to acknowledge and be grateful for any growth in the moon cycle. If our desires are for peace within us, peace around us and throughout the world, then this is time for allowing the strong pull of the full moon to amplify our calls. This is the time of the highest tides, pulling from within our bodies and on all life on this planet. Our folklore is full of tales of mystical, magical happenings at this time of full moon. Doreen Valiente suggested in her book ‘Natural Magic’ that “the full moon is the time of integration and perfection, the high tide of psychic matters”, and hence, understandably, a powerful time to perform magical work.
Perhaps that highlights the fact that we are not separate from the natural world, not separate from any being or creature: plant; mineral or animal. We affect everything around us, as we are affected by all around us – we are made from the same star stuff as everything and everybody else. When we acknowledge that integration, we connect with others, we connect with the Divine, to truly live with peace.
In the ceremonies of the Anglesey Druid Order we use words to call out for peace, to mark the start of each gathering. These words originate from the ceremony of the Grand Sword, and were first used in the Gorsedd of 1867. That ceremony had developed from the ideas of Iolo Morgannwg, who wanted to emphasise that Bards met in peace and chose peace, by the sheathing of a naked sword in their rituals. At the heart of this is the concept of ‘heddwch’, a Welsh word meaning peace - but there is more to it than that. Hedd means peace and the ‘wch’ is an imperative, so heddwch can be seen as a command for peace, an expectation of peace.
The words are asked as a question….
Y gwir yn erbyn y byd – a oes heddwch?
(The truth against the world – is there peace?)
The company responds “Heddwch”
Calon wrth galon – a oes heddwch?
(Heart to heart – is there peace?)
Again, the company responds “Heddwch”
Gwaedd uwch adwaedd – a oes heddwch?
(Shout above resounding shout – is there peace?)
The third response from the company “Heddwch”.
Using the energies of the full moon, we will now lead you into a meditation to consider the concept of peace, perhaps contemplating the words above - firstly relating to them within ourselves, and expanding outwards. Wherever you are in the world, either alone or in a group, we can join our peaceful intentions on the inner planes, as close to the time of the moon’s zenith as we can. We can send those positive feelings of ‘heddwch’ into the ‘web’ where all is connected.
There is a place where you can picture all those friends and loved ones, all those you miss, human or non-human - and be with them, on the inner planes, to wish for peace or heddwch. The Anglesey Druid Order has given the name of Yr Aelwyd, pronounced as Uhrr Ale(as in beer)wid, meaning the hearth fire, to describe a loving and warm, sacred meeting place. It is a place of the heart, a place where we meet beloved companions before setting off on magical intent, meditations and travels on the inner landscapes.
Please prepare your meditation space as you feel is right. You may wish to light a candle to represent the full moon – giving gratitude to the powerful energy and light in the darkness. Make yourself comfortable, and you may want to close your eyes. Imagine the faces of those people or beings you have been thinking about, as if you were sitting around a huge fire together on a dark night. This is Yr Aelwyd. Picture as many of your loved ones as you can, human or non-human, greeting them and feeling their essence as you draw close to them. Try to feel a connection with each of them as your view sweeps around the circle and the warm glow of the fire lights up their faces in the darkness. Tell them how much you are thinking of them, call out their names, let them know they are remembered. Feel in that sacred place the threads of love and memory that connect us all in peace and compassion.
So, take a deep breath, feeling the land solid beneath you, there is a slight vibration where your body meets the power of the land. You thank Dôn and her family, and all the Gods of the land, for shelter, nourishment and all that the land provides – just consider for a moment all that you have and all that you are in connection to the earth. Visualise the light of the full bright moon shining down on the place where you are, you are surrounded by light. Draw up the light of the moon into your body, feeling it enter your feet, bringing it up through your legs, feeling calmness and tranquility flow with the light, up into your pelvis, into your stomach, your chest, your arms, and throat, your face and scalp, feeling heddwch, the moon energy drawing up and away any feelings of tension or fear. You are filled with the reflected light of the full moon and you beam heddwch out into the world, radiating the light of the moon from your bones and your body.
Now take a deep breath and in your mind, travel across the land to where it meets the sea, feeling yourself standing safely in warm, shallow water. You thank Llŷr and his family, and all the Gods of the sea, grateful for the life giving, healing waters, and you consider for a moment all that the sea and water provides. The sea is calm, and the light of the full bright moon is shining down creating a silver sheen to the water, a pathway of silver leads directly from the Moon to where you are standing and you feel the moonlight enter your skin, heddwch from the moonbeams flowing into your heart, spiralling and pulsing around your veins until you are one with the light. You feel cleansed, full of heddwch, purified by the waves of light. You beam heddwch out into the world, radiating the light of the moon out from your heart and your blood.
Take another deep breath with the sky above you, looking up into the dark brightness, filling your lungs with air. You thank Beli Mawr and his family, and all the Gods of the sky, for their inspiration; for your expressiveness, the vibration of words and song, of colour, the light of the sun that brings us the light of the moon. You ponder for a moment on all that the air, the sky, the sun and the moon provides. You look up at the full moon and she seems so far away, but as you gaze at the brightness you feel the light fill your eyes, your head. With every breath you draw in the light and the intention of living with heddwch, into your face, your throat, your lungs, arms, into your stomach, pelvis, legs, every cell of your body, until your whole being radiates light and heddwch out into the world, through every breath heddwch reaches across the planet.
We’ll now sit for a few moments to continue feeling this connection to the full moon energy, to all beings and creatures, feeling peaceful, being heddwch, feeling light, being light. Feel again the company of those with you around Yr Aelwyd and feel the peace flow around your circle, connecting your hearts with wellbeing and love. On this particular full moon, we can send that peaceful feeling across the world to wherever it may be needed, and visualise that love flowing through all living beings there, visualise compassion and understanding, fairness, kindness, tolerance and wellbeing being shared between all lives there.
When you have completed your meditation, you may want to end with gratitude to the energy of the moon, and you may wish to make affirmations of peace, imagining your companions around Yr Aelwyd doing the same. “There is peace within, there is peace without”. At this time, you may want to add “There is peace throughout the world”. Bid farewell to anyone who has joined you for your meditation, walking away from Yr Aelwyd into the darkness and returning to your starting point, closing the doors to the inner realms.
Thank you for joining in. If you are feeling a little spacey, still being connected to the energy of the moon, you may find it useful to have something to eat and drink, to ground that energy back into your body again. Wishing you love, joy, peace and wellbeing for the next month, through the solstice and festive season, until next time.
