Skip to main content

Druidry - Philip Carr-Gomm - Journeys of the Soul

Philip Carr-Gomm, Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) has just told me that my description of Lily's meeting with Ross Nichols has been published in his book, Journeys of the Soul.

This book's description reads:  "Ross Nichols was one of the key figures in the revival of interest in Druidry and Celtic Spirituality in modern times. The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids, which he founded, is now the largest Druid group in the world.

Journeys of the Soul vividly describes Nichols’ journey through life in the first complete biography of this enigmatic and influential Druid Chief, allowing us an intimate and controversial glimpse into the life and mind of one of the founding figures of the modern Pagan movement."

My contribution is an extract from my novel Tamsin, which offers a  description of Lily's meeting with Ross Nichols.  This describes a factual event, and Lily's character is loosely based on a friend of mine whose true identity I will not reveal - partly because not all of Lily's story, as told in the novel, is true to life. 

However, I had previously queried Lily's description of Ross Nichols and his house with Philip Carr-Gomm, who kindly verified that 'Lily's' details were correct.

I haven't yet seen a copy of the book.  Apparently it's only available from the Oak Tree Press (OBOD's own publishing house) which can be found here:  http://www.philipcarrgomm.druidry.org/JourneysOfTheSoul.html

Comments

Philip Carr-Gomm's book, a quality hardback, arrived with a lovely personal inscription from the author.

My contribution can be found on pages 59 - 61.

The extract reads as if Lily is talking to me rather than to Tamsin - but that's not important as the real Lily did relate her description of Nuinn (Ross Nichols) to me.

Also, on page 271 the notes section states that my extract comes from "Companions on the Way", which was the working title for what is now "Tamsin" - but again, that's not important; and besides it's entirely my fault for forgetting to tell Philip Carr-Gomm that I'd changed the title.

Popular posts from this blog

A Cure for Aging?

"All that we profess to do is but this, - to find out the secrets of the human frame; to know why the parts ossify and the blood stagnates, and to apply continual preventatives to the effort of time.  This is not magic; it is the art of medicine rightly understood.  In our order we hold most noble -, first, that knowledge which elevates the intellect; secondly, that which preserves the body.  But the mere art (extracted from the juices and simples) which recruits the animal vigour and arrests the progress of decay, or that more noble secret which I will only hint to thee at present, by which heat or calorific, as ye call it, being, as Heraclitus wisely taught, the primordial principle of life, can be made its perpectual renovator...." Zanoni, book IV, chapter II, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, first published in 1842. Oroboros keyring - Spooky Cute Designs The idea of being able to achieve an immortal life is probably as old as human life itself.  Folklore and myt...

Remembering Richie Tattoo Artist's Studio

Richard in the street entrance to his tattoo studio in Liverpool. The vertical sign next to Richard is now in the Liverpool Tattoo Museum. Yesterday, my sister Evelyn, Richard and myself stood outside Richard's old tattoo studio and looked up at the few remaining signs, whose paint has now mostly flacked away to reveal bare wood. On the studio's window are stick-on letters which read, "Art", where once it boldly announced his presence as the city's only "Tattoo Artist".  I can remember him buying that simple plastic lettering from an old-fashioned printer's shop. This was in 1993, not long after he'd opened the studio and before he could afford better signs. After he'd patiently stuck them onto the glass we realised that from the outside the sign read "Artist Tattoo", so we had to carefully peel the letters off the window and have another go, laughing over having made such an obvious error yet worried in case we spoiled the letteri...

Dear Diary...

Do you keep a diary? Why did you start it, and, if you started one then stopped, why was that? What sort of things do (or did) you write about? I ask as, as a long-time diarist myself, there is an interesting piece in The Guardian today which talks about one woman's diary habit, which she began at the age of fourteen. I started a diary around that age too, but destroyed it after my mother accused me of using cocaine.  A stern scene followed, with both parents perched ram-rod straight in their armchairs, while I was subjected to a heated inquisition. Where had I bought it, and who from? Didn't I know such things led to death and doom? I struggled to decipher their bewildering accusations, until Mum blurted out, "I read it in your diary!" To find my diary, Mum would first have had to rummage through my dressing table, obviously when I wasn't around to protest. Her intrusion on my privacy was assumed by both parents to be acceptable, and now, with this handwritten c...