From the top of the valley, two streams flow through the frozen land towards us. At the marker of the standing stone, they combine and mix their waters and flow on together. Two talents, two influences, two ideas, or two sets of resources need to be combined. Read the rest of this entry »
Two doves drink out of the same bowl. Their intimacy is touching. It opens my heart and I hear the call of intimacy from the trees, the forest, the Land. It is the call of the Beloved, who longs for my love. Read the rest of this entry »
The landscape is open and welcoming. I feel like soaring like a hawk high over that landscape, looking at it from up high, getting to know its secrets. And then I pounce and catch my prey. Read the rest of this entry »
Holding on so tight. Holding it all in. Because if I let go, the viper will strike, battle will be joined, and I will get lost in the dark forest. So I hold the balance, keep the peace, stay silent. Read the rest of this entry »
A place deep in the Earth, in the bosom of the Land. A place to face the darkness within. A place to go deep. A place where you survey what passes through you. Read the rest of this entry »
This is the Grail itself, object of every quest. It is like a cool drink of water on a parched tongue. It is like rain after a hot spell. It revives and brings its greening. Life itself returns. Read the rest of this entry »
Standing in the blaze, at the heart of the fire. Roaring flames all around and inside. All-consuming passion. This fire can crate and utterly destroy. Read the rest of this entry »
A sword rises. Light reflects from its blade and sets off its keen edge. We are given a glimpse, a flash of truth, a lightbulb moment. This is a new idea, a new beginning. Read the rest of this entry »
Bliss. Everything is flowing smoothly. The world is greening. The creative juices are flowing, and everything has fallen into place. There is a feeling of unity. A feeling of expansion. All is one. We are at one with the world. Read the rest of this entry »
A new adventure. A rainbow of possibilities opens up and we have the innocent curiosity and spirit of adventure to step onto it. We are willing to take a new road with only birdsong to guide us. Read the rest of this entry »
He has suffered everything for his Land. He has a deep connection with the life-force that lives within the Land. And as the waters dry, he suffers. He is attuned to the cycles of life and goes within when life fades. Read the rest of this entry »
He sits and waits for us. He helps us to give form to our feelings so we can face them. He supports us to overcome the things that limit us. Read the rest of this entry »
The Empress of the Sacred Land spins the golden thread that is our destiny. It is the path we must follow to our greatest abundance. She is the fullness and ripeness of all things. She makes us whole. Read the rest of this entry »
Arthur represents the source of each person’s inner authority. He is the motivator of our actions in the world and the call of our longing to live. He is the King of a woman’s heart and the father of her creative children. He is the Beloved of her soul.
Arthur is also the Champion and Lord of the Sacred Land. He speaks for her with the authority of a beloved and loving husband. He acts to defend her, so that she may thrive. Read the rest of this entry »
He is passionately creative and he uses his art for the good of his people. He transforms things in his forge. He changes old things so they become useful again. Read the rest of this entry »
The Lady Sovereignty is the spirit of the Land. She rules over all that is sacred in Nature and its cycles, but also over all that is sacred in our lives. If we serve her in our own lives, healing will come to our relationships, our communities, our countries and our world. Read the rest of this entry »
First: Adventure with the Fox
Previous : Fox Challenges
Egg
When your skin is clean - as clean as you can get it - it is actually rawhide. It has a very papery texture, or can even feel like cardboard. Mrs Fox’s facial skin had gone absolutely solid. I was a bit worried about that, because it hadn’t dried in the most flattering shape. But eggs came to the rescue.
The recommended way of going about preserving a skin and making it supple is to use the actual animal’s brain. It’s called brain tanning. You mix the brain with warm water and work that into the skin. The protein does some kind of chemical magic to the skin and helps it become supple. We had buried Mrs Fox’s remains, so that wasn’t an option. The next best thing, apparently, is egg. I used the eggs I normally buy: free range and organic. I didn’t think Mrs Fox, who had been a free creature all her life, would have appreciated eggs from battery hens.
I took a few days to egg the skin. On the first day, New Year’s day 2007, I massaged egg into the face and paw skin by hand, using a wooden spoon only for the large areas on her neck and head. To my great satisfaction, I managed to get most of that supple again, by sheer hard work. I massaged and massaged her face and her cheeks until the skin moved again. Only the lip on her left side, the side where she was badly bruised, stayed solid. But I was very pleased with the result.
Then the next day I egged the main area of the skin. This time I used a wooden spoon the whole time to apply egg and work it into the skin by pushing and stroking. You have to keep working the skin until the egg has completely dried in. The egg yellowed the skin a little, but not as much as I expected. And it only took about three hours for the whole thing to dry, with two applications of egg.
On the third day, I decided to give her another egging on the skin of her back. Her chest and belly skin are very thin and supple, but the back area, all the way from neck to tail, is quite thick and tough. It still felt a bit papery, so I gave it another go. I don’t actually know if that did any good. What I do know is that I shouldn’t have used a wooden spatula to do it. I managed to create another little hole in the skin.
Smoke
Thursday was smoking day. Wood smoke, so I have learned, contains formaldahyde and creosote. If you hang your skin in the smoke of a fire, it will take up these chemicals. They preserve the skin and make it a little more water resistant.
Ideally, you need a smoke house. You can’t just hang your skin over a burning fire, because that would burn it. Anything that’s too hot for your fingers is too hot for the skin, Thomas from Trackways had told me. You need a really smoky fire - just add some damp wood - and then you have to find a way to direct the smoke away from it and onto your skin. You have to tie your skin into a cone shape, so it acts as a chimney and the smoke goes through it.
No description can do justice to the Heath Robinson device that Alex put together for this purpose. It involved the garage doors, some picture wire, a couple of wire coat hangers, and one of those flexible foil tubes that can concertina out. We hung the fox skin over the garage doors, with the tube leading from my fire bowl, via the coat hangers hanging from picture wire. And it worked a treat. If the smoke works to preserve skin, I will stay young forever, because I got my fair share of it. And the skin got thoroughly smoked, too. And the smoke really did yellow her.
Mrs Fox has done her fair share of smelling in the last month or so, but now we have given her a whole new kind of stink. She smells thoroughly smoky. I’d love to leave her outside to air for a while, but the weather is predictably wet these days and she’d just get soaked. The smoke might help make her more water resistant, but a serious wetting isn’t really advisable.
So that means Mrs Fox is finished. I want to give her fur a brushing out so she looks clean and sleek all over. And when she smells of smoke less strongly she can come and live here in my room with me. But other than that the job is done. Finished. I can’t quite get used to the idea. It’s been such a major part of my life for about five weeks, I can’t believe there isn’t anything else to do.
But I am proud of the result and very grateful to Mrs Fox for allowing me to work with her, to all my Druid friends who gave support and advice, to my friend who helped and supported me through the night of skinning, to Thomas for his expert directions, and above all to Alex, who is just amazing. Thank you so much.