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 The Many Coloured Lands are contained in
the Hazelnut and made up of the Three Worlds of Celtic lore:
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Lowerworld
– the place of the ancestors, where all knowing is stored;
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Upperworld
– the place of the powers and archetypes, the gods and goddesses;
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Middleworld
– the spiritual counterpart of the everyday world, where things change. this world
feeds both upper and lower worlds. |
There are many magical places within the three worlds
which is also known as the Many Coloured Land and all are linked through the
Tree of Wisdom and Tradition. Here is list of
some of them.
- The Hazelnut
- The Hazelnut is one of the major images for the universe in
Celtic tradition. Around the edge of the Hazelnut lies the Rainbow and this great band of
colour defines our universe from others. Our worlds our bounded by the Rainbow and it is
the Bridge, the way to walk between the worlds.
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- The Tree
of Wisdom and Tradition
- This tree is about inspiration, Awen as it is called in
Welsh. Its roots wrap around the lip of the Well of Segais which is the fountain of all
knowledge and wisdom. By the well sits the Lord of the Beasts, guarding the Cauldron of
Rebirth and around him are the Beasts and the Ancestors. The Tree of Wisdom and Tradition
reaches its branches up into the heavens and beyond and they are full of stars. The Sun
and Moon hang amongst the branches. This is Upperworld, the realm of Arianrhod, Lady of
the Stars and Moon, Mag Mell, Caer Sidi. Around the centre of the trunk of the Great Tree
is Middleworld, where we live out our earthly incarnations. It is the spiritual dimension
of the everyday world, holding the essences, the blueprints, of everything in our daily
lives.
- Many people who work with the northern European traditions
find a Tree to be one of the main features which recurs in their work. The Nordic
traditions call it Yggdrasil. It is the idea of the central pole which is common in all
traditions throughout the world representing the idea of the Spindle which connects heaven
and earth through the Middleworlds, the Axis Mundi. Circular dwellings, timber, hide,
cloth, with a central supporting pole and the circular mounds are common in the Celtic
lands.
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Lowerworld
- Lowerworld is the place of the Ancestors. Sometimes
it appears like a great hall, sometimes a grove. It may be daylight, twilight or night,
lit by the Earth stars, the crystals. It is under the charge of Arawn and Rhiannon and is
called Annwn in the Welsh. The story of Pwyll in the Mabinogion gives a lot of information
on this world. It is a prime source of wisdom and knowledge, it also holds your power
until you are able to take it and use it without damaging everything around you.
- Although it is often called Lowerworld an old spelling of
the Welsh name "annwfn" can be translated as meaning "in-world", that
which lies deep within at the heart, core or centre of everything. In this sense it is the
source, the primal place from which all else stems. You might liken it to the state of
potential from which came the Big Bang in one theory of the creation of the universe. It
is also like the "glue" which holds everything together.
- Many people find the Enchanted Forest here, Broceliande
from the Arthurian stories. This forest contains Merlin’s Tower or castle, a place
which changes its shape and moves about from place to place within the forest. The forest
is alive, it is a being in its own right and its guardian is sometimes called the
Woodward, Woodwose, Green Man, Lord of the Beasts or Custennin from the tale of Culhwch
and Olwen and many other names.
- Don’t be surprised if you find places move from where
you thought they were last time you visited Lowerworld, this is a normal and natural part
of magical work. From our everyday perspective we tend to believe that places stay still,
have their "feet nailed to the perch" as Monty Python put it! This is not really
true in any sense for places grow and evolve of themselves, they are alive and have their
own consciousness. It is sometimes easier for humans to believe that things are small
enough to be under their control but this is an illusion brought on by the absence of
magical experience.
- Magicians control nothing – they do however dance in
step with all that is around them whether they can see it with their physical eyes or not.
This is what you are learning with the dream craft. Those who tell you they control things
are what the alchemists call "puffers". They are puffed up with their own
self-conceit and also afraid if they feel they are not in control. You cannot make the
world a "safe, homogenised" place, none of us can. We can learn to live with it
and this is a mind-expanding, life-enhancing experience which continues all the way up to
and beyond our death.
- Lowerworld is full of surprises, perhaps the most
"Alice through the Looking-glass" of the worlds. It's full of things which look
like things you already think you know – and then you find that they are different.
We all have preconceptions, ideas of how things are, the problem comes when we refuse to
accept that our preconceptions may not be large enough to encompass the reality we
experience.
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Upperworld
- Upperworld, also called Mag Mell, is in the guardianship of
Arianrhod, the Lady of the Moon and Stars. Her spinning spiral tower, called Caer Sidi
(pronounced shee), is here. It is also the dwelling place of the spirits and totems
and the source of the patterns which shape the universe and the lives of all that lives
within it. It is the place where you find your primary Teacher and learn about your place
in the larger scheme of things. This is very empowering and brings a whole new outlook on
life – making it a lot more fun! The Celtic tradition has far less information readily
available about this realm than the other two and it seems a bright and shadowy place even
after many visits. There is always something more, new, different to discover – which
usually requires a change of viewpoint from you too. It is full of ideas and plans and
dreams waiting to become real in the everyday world, not all of them will but the
potential is there. As you travel around this realm you will find your own mind expands
from contact with things you hadn’t yet dreamed of yourself.
- Upperworld contains the four major archetypes which seem to
run through all human traditions in one form or another – Father, Mother, Daughter,
Son. These four form a polarity which enables the current of life to flow. In many stories
the Father depends on the Daughter, the Mother on the Son. Father/daughter stories are
those like Yspaddaden and Olwen, Gwydion and Blodeuwedd. Mother/Son stories are those like
Arianrhod and Llew, Ceridwen and Taliesin, and the archetypal Modron (which means mother)
and Mabon. In these stories the child must "win" something from the parent in
each case in order to grow into potency. In the case of the daughters it is often to get
themselves a husband in spite of the father’s objections – so that they can be
impregnated on every level and so gain their power and sovereignty. When they do this the
father dies. In the case of the sons they must often "trick" power, name, arms,
life itself, from the mother and have to undergo severe tests and/or imprisonment in order
to become themselves. In these cases the mother does not die but is satisfied in some way
by the son’s achievement – even if it appears grudgingly.
- Upperworld, is often said to lie "over the sea".
I always think of the I Ching saying of "crossing the great water" here as well.
This crossing of the sea, the water, is about going out of one’s normal element and
somewhere else, hence the feeling many people have of being "beamed up". On
ordinary sea journeys in the everyday world time can seem to stand still, change, the
effect is similar here. Upperworld is also said to lie "through the circle" or
"at the world’s end" and some old ideas about the world were that it was
surrounded by an endless sea which washed around and around it forever and was very
difficult to cross. Or that it fell in a never ending waterfall over the edge of the world
and that if you got too close you would be swept down and lost forever – this also
makes me think of "black holes" in physics.
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Middleworld
- Middleworld has many guardians – including you! It is
the place of experience and also the place where we can manifest the ideas and learning we
have got from the other two worlds. Through us it feeds the Upper and Lower worlds as well
as being nourished by them. The gods cannot work here on their own they need us as mediums
and mediators who can make things real here. As you travel more and work in Middleworld
you will find yourself able to see, sense and/or feel the strands of the Web. Many people
seem to find they have an actual "feel" of the threads in their fingers, like on
a spinning wheel or weaving loom, both of which are Celtic symbols as well as used by
other traditions.
- Sensing these threads you will feel where one is
"snagged" or where it needs reconnecting or where there is a tangle. Before you
rush in and try to undo the Gordion knot ask your Familiar if this is what you should be
doing – sometimes knots are there for a good reason which you may not be able to see
straight away. Not everything which at first sight appears wrong is so. Remember how
tricky things can seem when you have travelled in Otherworld, how there is no "black
and white", no easy way of defining things. You are part of a team with your Familiar
and your Teacher and all the other Beings you are getting to know in Otherworld. You
don’t have to do it all by yourself any more, in fact you shouldn't try to do so but
always ask the others for their opinion and discuss what you are going to do.
- You can take any question which concerns you about anything
to do with the everyday world into Middleworld and find new and wider perspectives on it.
Sometimes these are not too comfortable as they require you to change your attitudes and
prejudices. You may also find that common current socially acceptable attitudes do not
hold up under Otherworld scrutiny which can be difficult. You still have to live in the
everyday world so somehow you have to find a way of living with your inner knowledge and
still conforming, to some extent, to public opinion. This is called "keeping your
head down"! It does help if you have one or two friends who you can go off down the
pub with and have a creative whinge together. There is an old psychology adage (probably
apocryphal!) which goes "A whinge a day keeps the therapist at bay!".
- Perhaps one of the foremost lessons of Middleworld is that
you cannot change anything except yourself but in changing yourself you will find the
world changes around you.
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