Blackthorn: Straif
by Blayze

Sink your awareness down into the earth. Become aware of your breathing. Enter a trance state (using usual breathing techniques…)You find yourself standing at the foot of a large hill - all around you is darkness pierced only by the brilliant light of the stars… twinkling like jewels embroidered into the velvet cloak of the night sky above you.By the light of the stars you can see that a path winds in a spiral about the hill. You move to the left and begin to walk along the path - ever twisting and spiralling to the left. 

You begin to feel the ground slope beneath your feet as you slowly walk the spiral path. Your awareness shifts with each turn as you sink deeper and deeper into trance.You are aware moonlight growing brighter as you near the summit of the hill and you realise that the moon is rising to hang just above the hill itself. Bathed in the moonlight is a tall, ancient stone that stands in the centre of a flat plateau. 

The spiral path winds ever towards the stone in the centre, one half of which is in shadow, the other illuminated by the silver light of the moon.Gradually you find yourself walking in a ever tightening spiral as you move closer and closer to the stone… always and ever moving to the left. At last you come face to face to with the towering and ancient weathered rock. 

By the light of the moon you see that there is an image carved upon its surface… A straight line runs from an inverted V at the base to the top of the stone. Halfway up the line you see a four diagonal lines extending from top left to bottom right. This is the Ogham Straif - the Blackthorn carved into the single upthrust spur of living rock.You feel the power awakening in the stone and sigil as the moon continues to rise. The Ogham stave glows and you run your hand along its length. You feel the energy tingle through you from the tips of your fingers to your feet upon the earth. 

Suddenly everything shifts and you find that you have passed through the stone into another realm. Mist envelopes you and you experience a moment of disorientation, but you can now feel the stone standing at your back. 

It is still night, and the moon is just a glimmer in the sky - a small thin crescent which illuminates the area with just a touch of silver. You move away from the stone and the mist begins to writhe and shred away. You begin to walk forward and you feel soft grass beneath your feet although the grass feels flattened and well trod.

In the pale light you see that you are walking along an old road and you begin to feel a slight chill in the air. You continue wallking along the road and eventually you come to two large trees standing as sentinels on either side of the road. Beyond the trees all is shrouded in mist.

On your left is a willow tree with its fronds touching the ground, and on your right is a tall oak with a spreading crown. You stand between the trees and begin to remember what both those trees have taught you on your previous journeys.  Willow and Oak make up the Oghamic letters for Straif, the Blackthorn, they are your gateway to understanding the thorn. 

Think about the Willow and the Oak.The Willow represented that which you needed to give up, the Oak allowed you to find your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses, it gave you your sovereignty. As you think about the Willow and the Oak, the mist beyond the trees begins to clear. You peer between the trees and there you find a large Holly tree, one step further than the Oak. The Holly taught you about your leadership and the balance that you need to find within to lead well and justly. Think about this. The leaves of the Holly are also sharp and pointed.

Move to the Holly tree. Take off your clothes and possessions and leave them at the base of the Holly Tree. Take one of the Holly leaves and use its point to gently prick your skin at your third eye. Give the drop of blood to the Holly Tree and bury the leaf at its base.

You hear the sounds of unearthly music, music that is sweet yet sorrowful, full of memory. It draws you beyond the Holly. You see that beyond the Holly there stands a lone Blackthorn tree, bare branched to the sky. The tree is some distance away and stands in the centre of a huge circular road that leads from the Holly in both directions.The area surrounding the Blackthorn is covered in clumps of stones and is bordered by the road.

Cross over the road into the clearing with the Blackthorn. You feel a slight pressure on your skin as you cross the road, and the small wound on your forehead throbs slightly, but you are able to pass.

As you move closer to the Blackthorn, you realise that what you thought were clumps of stones are actually cairns, markers of the dead and of the ancestors. You walk amongst the cairns and you feel the dormant energy, the potential and fate that is encased in the dark bark of the tree before you.

The air is growing warmer as you approach the tree. You see that at its base are some fallen branches and twigs, left from the winter storms. The branches of the live tree and the discards are covered with long sharp thorns.

Move to the pile of deadfall and break off a handful of twigs. Now move to the road, but stand on the blackthorn side of the boundary. Walk forward around the ring of the road, and every so often cast a small twig over your shoulder, and don't look back. Eventually you will get back to where you started. Move towards the blackthorn again. You feel that the air has grown warmer again, and a sweet musky smell scents the air. The black branches of the tree are now covered with delicate white flowers, but no leaves. It is the flowers that give off the scent. They have long stamens and grow along the branches amongst the thorns.

You see that in the pile of deadfall wood is a strong branch that would make an ideal staff. You take up this staff and once more move the road. With the staff you trace a circle within the boarder and where you walk strong and tangled blackthorn hedges spring up. They are covered with leaves and the air has grown very warm. The blackthorn hedges are so closely packed that there is no way back through them, but they are green and growing and there is life that boarders the land of the dead. The hedges create a safe haven for you, they are your protection as well as your prison. They represent your fate.

Once more go back to the lone Blackthorn tree. You see that is too is now covered with leaves. You also see that there is one spot beneath the tree that is clear of deadfall. The night air is sticky and warm and you sit beneath the tree to rest, place the blackthorn staff across your knees.

Look out over the cairns and beyond them the hedgerow. Look at the contrasts within your landscape. Think about the negativity in your life, about the relationship of death and rebirth.

As you think the air becomes cooller again. And you notice that there are berries forming on the branches above you. The berries are not yet ripe. Reach up and take a berry for every negative aspect or emotion that you find in your life. Hold the berries in your hands and contemplate this.  Reach up again and break off a thorn. The sharp point pricks your skin and a drop of blood falls to the earth. 

Take the thorn and carefully prick each of the berries, deflate them as you deflate your negative aspects and emotions, let the juices, the blood of the berries flow out upon the earth. Negativity is different from darkness, darkness is a necessary part of our lives and provides the balance with the light. Understand this within yourself. Take the berry skins and gift them to the cairns, tell the ancestors that you understand yourself now and that you can learn from their presence.

Go back to the tree and sit down once more. Look out across the landscape at the hedgerow.

You have been crowned sovereign by the Oak, found leadership and justice with the Holly. But what happens to your leadership and those that look to you for support when you are gone. Think about your life. Now is not your time to die, but you will die someday. The lesson of the blackthorn is to not be scared of your fate. Think about what is beyond death for you, and what you leave behind on the physical plane. Do you need to put your house in order?

When you have identified what needs to be done in your life to deal with your eventual death, you feel that the air has become chilly once more... you see that frost has formed upon the ground and your breath is puffing in white clouds from your nose and mouth. Reach up and pick a berry. You see that it is dark purple and heavily ripe. You bite into the berry and it is sweet where before all was bitter. The blackthorn is the most ancient of plums. There is sweetness in life and in death and with this realisation the blackthorn hedges part. There is now an exit at the Holly Tree.

You stand up and take hold of your staff. With an act of will you band the end of the staff upon the ground. Winter is here once more, the air is cold but you know that spring will return again and the frosts of late autumn turn the blackthorn berry, the slow to sweetness... the wheel turns.

Place your staff at the base of the tree, the leaves are turning yellow now and it is time to leave.

Walk forwards to the gap in the hedgerow and cross the road to the Holly tree. The movement of air you feel at the crossing is embraced by you, no longer something to fear.

At the Holly tree, take up your clothes and possession and put them on. Walk back bewteen the Oak and the Willow and take their lessons with you too. You walk back along the flattened grass track towards the standing stone.

Finally you return to standing stone.  but this time a spiral is carved into its surface. Move to the stone and begin to trace the spiral as it twists to the right. You become aware of mist forming around you once more and again a feeling of disorientation. As the mist begins to clear you find that you are once again standing upon the hillside under the fading light of the setting moon. By the light of the stars you begin to walk the spiral path out from the centre, ever moving to the right. You begin to feel the path sloping downwards as you tread the spiral path around the hill. As you walk you feel yourself becoming heavier and heavier, you begin to be aware of other sounds…. Slowly you reach the bottom of the hill and sit at its base. You become aware of the feel of your body, the shape of your skin and your breath. You feel the blood flowing through your veins . You become aware of the sounds around you… When you are back… open your eyes.