Jet lag much worse today, spent most of the night with the shivers got up at 3am. It's like my body knows it can be ill now, safely back home with Tara. Sat down and admired the magical gift I received yesterday. I didn't actually get it yesterday, the parcel arrived while I was in England. My wonderful friends the Francis family, Bill, Jen, Jake and Brayan not forgetting Elvis the dog sent me the most beautiful medicine flute.
Later on, about 9am, me, boo and the flute took a stroll in the forest, only after taking copious amounts of flu remedies.  You can give a flute to a man but that doesn't mean he can play it. As I walked towards the hollow tree that I had recently discovered I played on the flute, correction, I made some interesting noises with the flute. Screechy ear piercing sounds echoed through the forest, animals scampered in every direction, Boo was somewhere off in the distance annoying some chipmunks. Finally I found a big old tree stump that was drenched in warm winter sunshine and sat down to play.
Up and down the scales, messing about with strange combinations trying to find the sweet spot that called to the energy of this place. Then there it was, a string of six deep bassy notes followed by two quick high notes. This short collection of notes seemed to get the spirits attention and I felt the hair rise on the back of my neck as the atmosphere changed around me. I could physically feel eyes staring at me. I stood, bowed my head and thanked the energies for acknowledging my call but i also knew that there has to be a reason to call and understood there would be different tunes for different needs. The tune I had played today was just to ask for access to their world.

 Back home after an emotionally harrowing two weeks. My Mother is finally put to rest, may the Gods bless her soul. Due to an eight hour time difference, I was wide awake at 4AM, by the the time first rays of light appeared on the horizon, I was out the door walking Boo.
I kept her on the leash, as we have some new people staying on site and didn't want her bounding over  to them, not very likely at this time in the morning. She hates being on the lead and was pulling like a Tasmanian Devil. When finally I could take no more and released her, she darted in to a nearby thicket from where a huge bull Elk stampeded out of the other side . The Elk charged past me careering through the dark forest, followed by Boo in hot pursuit.
So the Elk was being chased by Boo and I was chasing both of them trying to get control of the dog. They were both out of sight in no time and all I could do was follow the clatter and crash of snapping foliage. I ran like this for maybe ten minutes, then suddenly it all went deftly quiet, not a sound, complete silence. I called to Boo and whistled loudly, not a thing. It was then that I looked up and saw the most monolithic of trees. This tree was completely dead, it was burnt from the inside out and totally hollow, with an entrance facing me. I peered in and looked up to the grey morning sky, then down, a deep dark cavern of a hole, an entrance to another realm, a gateway.
I bowed my head to the spirits that dwelt there, I could feel them watching me. I knocked three times on the outside of the tree and asked to come back and journey at this place. A woodpecker tapped out a beat on the bark of an adjacent Douglas Fir. I took this as confirmation and planned to make a special visit to this place on my own, then continued my search for Boo.
After a good hour of calling and whistling I decided to head back to the house. I knew Tara would be pissed If I told her I had lost the dog but if she was meant to get lost it was just her orlog. For some reason I felt like the Elk had led me to the tree and that Boo would be OK. As I turned the corner where the house comes into view, there she was. Covered in crap and panting like a crazy thing. She sat up as if to say " Where have you been?"

Heading Home To Tara

I leave the UK, heading back to the sanctuary of the wilderness. In the depths of my despair great knowledge and wisdom, no not wisdom and knowledge a KNOWING came to me, something I should have recognized long ago. It is now time for me to step up to the plate and use the connection I have been blessed with, the primal magic that flows between my wife and me. The same magic that called me four and a half thousand miles across the world.
In the new year I will dive head first and return to my teaching path. If reading and healings come all the better but Odin has set me on a path to spread his word, to teach the runes in a way that can change lives and that is what I will do. I will use every gift given in every possible way.This is not a New Year's resolution, this is an oath I make for my Mother and never to be broken.
I was told the Gods were angry with me and I wondered what I had done to displease them but it was not what I had done, it was what I had not done. They, the God's had seen fit to present me with a sacred gift and I had chosen to let it lay idle. No more!

I was not going to blog today, as my mother passed away last night but I have just walked in the forest in the pouring rain and said prayers for her memory.
Yesterday after my first voice of Odin, blog radio, I was suddenly drained of all energy. It was like I had given two pints of blood. I got home struggled to get out the car and then collapsed into bed exhausted. In the early hours I had a vision dream.
Hella, the goddess of the underworld ( Half beautiful woman, half corpse} came to me and she spoke.
" Sometimes Odin uses your voice, sometimes he uses your body but tonight he took your energy and gifted to your father as he was in great need"
. I woke this morning with my energy returned, only to be bombarded with numerous messages telling me to call home (The UK). It was then when I heard the news that my mother had passed over.
So in this mornings rain storm I held my ceremony. I kept control of my emotions as long as I could, then halfway through the ceremony I dropped to my knees and sobbed like a baby mumbling " I love you Mum."
As I wept uncontrollable tears the world around wept with me in torrents of rain. The rain and my tears flowed together and into the sodden earth. back to the Mother, back to the well of all things.

This short note is not about the wonderful creatures I have encountered in the wild and beautiful place but about the mythical beasts I came across in a vision dream earlier this morning.
My Dog Boo has the worse case of hives I have ever seen, so when she groaned in the early hours I woke immediately. After stroking her head and a few calming words she drifted back off to sleep as did I.
I was a young boy again walking through a forest, when  I head a deep,  grumbling  growl coming from a dense thicket. As I Got closer a golden radiance of some scaly skin was showing through the leaves. I reach out with my hand and just as my finger tip touched the warm, dry surface, the whole forest erupted and I ran for my life out of the wood. The shadow of something huge loomed over me from above, then bang!
I am now a man riding a slithering snake across a desert, the creature stopped at each Oasis we passed. As we traveled we came across a blue dinosaur. I dismounted from the snake and got on the raptor who even though this ride was wild and crazy, was very, very exciting. He ran flat out to the edge of a cliff and stopped dead, Which sent me over his neck and catapulted me out into the vast ravine. Head over heals I tumbled until I landed once more on the snake.
"Ahhhh!" I though this is a ride I know and we continued at a steady pace, visiting oasis after oasis.
Then another Dinosaur appeared, even bigger than the last and I could not resist and abandoned the snake once more.
This time I was ready for the wild ride of this T-Rex, I hung on for much longer even though he was much bigger and stronger than the last, I really thought I had mastered him. As we reached the most baron of wastes, he slowed to a steady walk, turned his gigantic head right round to face me, Gently took a handful of my shirt and flung me me far out into the wasteland as he possibly could. With a thud I hit the ground and momentarily things went black.
I woke alone, afraid, hungry and completely lost. Then I heard it, the same deafening raw I heard as a child. I turned on my heels and ran like crazy in the other direction. The vast shadow swooped up on me, over me then landed in from of me. I stopped dead and turned my eyes to the ground, too afraid to look. It spoke.
" Follow my path, when and only when I think you are ready you may ride me too."
I rose my eyes to gaze upon a huge golden dragon. Her eyes looked into my soul and I felt clean and pure for the first time I can ever remember. As she made her way across the wasteland, I happily trotted behind, content to serve her in any way I could.
For days we traveled like this. The terrain changed from desert to green rolling hills and there upon such a hill she allowed me to climb on her back . This was no wild ride, she gracefully glided along the valleys, with a gentle roll of her body, we would climb the bank of one valley and roll down into another.
It was in one of these valleys I my vision became deeper and much more profound. I saw my sister Mandy with her son Connor in  a push chair. He was holding out his arms towards me and calling " Uncle Jeb!"
The reason this was so amazing is that Connor passed over as a small child due to complications of severe Ceribal Pausey . Here in my vision he was a happy vibrant boy. I got down from the dragon  approached  and knelt down before him.
" Uncle Jeb can I ride the dragon too?"
" Not this time Lad, but the next for sure. I will show you what it is like."
I took a note pad out and drew  the view from on the Dragons back, as I passed it over to Connor the picture came alive, 3D interactive. His face lit up as he stared deep into the picture. I looked up to my sister, she smiled and I nodded then flew away on the Dragon.
We journeyed away from the green rolling hills to snow covered peaks, where she landed and set me down. Her big green eyes took one last look at me before she plunged down the mountain and swooped away leaving me alone once more. I thought she has deserted me, I had found my place with her, the only place I had ever felt I belonged. I heard a faint crack and turned to my left to find a huge nest with three eggs inside, one of which had started to open.
And I woke from my Vision!

The Xmas rush is upon us and Tara has started getting orders coming out of her ears. I myself have become like Santa's little helper, an Elf who sits in the corner busily sowing wallets, not so much of a shaman , more of a faithful servant. We still have our wildlife encounters but there are more of a blur as we pass by in the car. I guess with orders, the store and Scanfest in Portland it will be the Holidays before we can actually just be still again.
Talking about whizzing by in the car, I have already talked about Tara's fear of deer on the road, night before last, whilst struggling with the gauntlet of patchy fog, we came across a whole herd of elk just meandering across highway 101. Tara was totally freaked out but I loved it, never being that close up before.
We turn off the highway to our track and continue the journey home at about twenty mile an hour. Just over the crooked wooden bridge as you enter the forest section , the haunting figure of an owl drives down from a tree and directs his flight in the same direction as us along the path. His feathers glow in a glorious array of woodland colors as the beam of our headlights bounce off his plumage.
He swoops down low to the ground then sharply arcs up landing on the low branch of a birch tree that hung over the track. We stop the car, dip the lights and roll down the windows, Nothing needs to be said be both just gaze in wonder as the majestic creature gazes back at us. In the dark, in the night he is king of the forest.

A day of Ice and Isolation. A crisp blanket of frost covered my woodland home and my feet crunched the ground as I made my way to say prayers in the forest. Boo darted from tree to tree chasing illusive squirrels and chip monks, who once out of dog range chattered and taunted her from the higher branches. I found a certain rune, that stood out in the over lapping branches of the trees and began my prayers. As I chanted my breath swirled and bellowed from my mouth in the cold morning of the air. The dragons breath sent my salutations on their way and disappearing into the vapors, letting all know I am here.
I had planned to do a ceremonial vision quest whilst I had peace and stillness and headed back to the house to, bath, shave and completely cleanse myself before the ritual. As I passed one of the abandoned cabins a soft hush of AAHHHHHHH! whispered from the shadows. The hairs stood on the back of my neck. I turned and faced the direction of the ghostly voice and spoke.
"I know that spirits and shades dwell here but I live here now. You will get used to me in times and yes you did spook me, Well done.." I spat on the ground to mark my territory.
The night or early morning before,( you know that 3:am time of dream visions,) I had found myself in a pub in Boston MA around the turn of the twentieth century. I was dressed in my bowler hat. waistcoat and my long coat over the top. The group of men who sat around were asking me where I was from. I had disguised my London accent with a slight Irish brogue. Knowing instinctively that I was not welcome I necked my pint of sour beer, wiped my tash with the sleeve of my coat and made my exit. I knew full well that they would follow to kick the crap out of me or worse.
Out side I had left my shillelagh ( A blackthorn club ) hidden behind some crates. I retrieved it and stood it next to the door. As the group of men pursued me, they struggled to get through the narrow doorway, I grabbed the club and struck the first three down with crushing blows to their skulls. The fourth stopped. I looked him straight in the eye and said
"I,m going nowhere I live here too, so fecking get used to it." I spat on the ground and woke from my vision.
Of course there are shades and spirits, even demons that dwell in this forest. I accept they exist and try to find a way to co-exist. If you run from them every single thing, you will always be running and besides, Odin stands beside me.