To the Otherworld

“To have a positive religion is not necessary. To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts, and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Restless night, awake until after 3am so woke up tired, sort of hungover, although I’d only had one beer last night (maybe I needed more!). Breakfast with some of the group from last night, the animator and Gloucester student.
More interesting connections today, some following on from last night where I met more of the group – a sensory feedback practitioner from California who’d flown in for the conference (amongst other things), another keen Astrologer and an unexpected encounter with a Buddhist security guy when I skived off early to get my boots ready for an evening walk.
Todays presentation topics included Tibetan Spirit Mediums, traditional Romanian dancers and carol singers, Harmony in Hinduism, The Way of Heaven (Taoism), Astronomy and Art (Turner, Miro etc).
I slipped back in at the close to find B, who’d offered to take a group of whoever was interested to a stone circle, ‘The Devil’s Candlesticks’, in the woodland above Lampeter. The day had been damp and drizzly to start and it didn’t get any better on our walk up the old drovers road, the gnarled old beech trees glistened silver in the damp atmosphere, just so full of character, reminding me of the tramway back home, lining the sunken lane to the mine workings on the hillsides above Cwmbran.  So no panoramic views across the rolling hills from the Iron Age Hill Fort today. Fortunately there was plenty of animated discussion to keep our minds off the wet legs and soggy boots as we weaved our way down through the woodland to see the stones and woodland carvings, the Oak Boy reminded me of an Elf..
By the time we made it back to town it was too late to join the others who’d gone to the pub earlier, they’d stopped serving food ages ago (it was Sunday after all) and some had headed homewards for the night. Not much open so, as M was starving, the remnants of our walking group piled into a cheap and cheerful kebab place for a spiritual supper of bacon bites and chips. Real meaning of life stuff with us huddled around a plastic topped table talking about liberal arts education – not me, I’d heard the expression but that was about it, I was just listening.
Our 11p.m. walk back to the college reminded me of student days, particularly the two drunks on the corner, one peeing against a skip as we walked past. Obviously not much to do in Lampeter on a Sunday night. Put my dripping clothes on the heater to dry off before turning in.