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Boudica. Statue of my ancestor.

After the war, my dad had the privilege of putting the right horses hoof back on. Let me introduce myself. Sparrowhawk is my name. I have been working shamanically for 20 or so years, also teaching Psychosynthesis and running a practice in Dunedin New Zealand. My family come from the East Anglian area, though I was born in London. On a trip back to England in my 20’s ( I am now 61) I had the experience of standing in someones turnip field exalting in the joy of being back in Suffolk, when it occurred (rather more strongly than that) to me that I was standing on the land that contained the DNA of my ancestors: that I and the land were one. That changed my life and began my journey along the path of the celtic shaman, always bring me back to the knowledge that the ancestors live and speak through us. Boudicca began to become part of the issue somewhere in the following years. I don’t know why or when. I named my dog for her because I wanted her to grow ’strong and wise and free”. In the years that followed, Boudicca grew in my awareness, as did the conviction that the connection between the land and the ancestors is what roots us all into our own truth. Gradually it became clear that she literally came from the same place as my family (who can be traced back so far I cant read the writing anymore). It had never occurred to me that they were part of her tribal land (as are millions of us no doubt). Recently I began studying the Maori traditions. They are wedded to their own ancestors in all they do. Being asked to stand an state my own antecedents brought me to the question of Boudicca once again and I found I had to acknowledge her from my own truth, nervous as I was that I was being a wanker. Still it felt right.

Ever since that acknowledgment of her as my ancestor, her presence has intensified. In fact a friend from England, who I had met on holiday last year sent me a copy of “Dreaming the Eagle”. Devouring it, and the ones that followed, I found tears in my eyes as I felt Manda had captured the essence of the journey I have been on: that the time is now that the linage of the warrior queen must shine through and ground us to the task we have of completing the battle against the colonization and capitalistic extremes that Rome began and others have emulated. Here we are now, knowing the outcome circa 2008 of what Boudicca fought for in 61AD: enslavement to the system that is not ours. In NZ they refer to it as Pakeha (white persons) culture. But this corporate culture is not ours. It is all we have known since Rome won, but its not who we really are. It is up to us to dig beneath this false culture and find out who we are from who we were: from our ancestors. Thank you Manda, for the truth with which you wrote that series. I endorse it thoroughly. My own book, “Reweaving the Web-A Shamanic Journey of Connection” -a simple look at how we can begin to weave ourselves back into the energetic web of life and how important that is, especially now- can be viewed on and purchased from, my website www.spiritflight.co.nz. As yet it is not available in bookshops outside Dunedin as I have self published and am now learning how to self promote. I’ll get there no doubt. Right now when the world as we have come to view it is disintegrating before our eyes, I think it is as well to remember what our priories are in order to stay sane, and to draw of the strength within wherever it comes from. I know that the place much of mine comes from is my ancestors, and one in particular. Blessed be!