Creating the Nemeton - part 1 (The Physical Nemeton)

In ancient druidic religious practice a nemeton was a sacred grove, a place for worship, devotion and sacred rites.

To follow the Green Path and heed the call of our ancestors we must create a nemeton. However, not everyone is blessed to live within easy reach of quiet woodland. In such circumstances it is wise to create the inner nemeton - a sacred grove within your kind that you can retreat to through meditation and inner visualisation at anytime. I am blessed to live near wooded areas but have still found it beneficial to create and inner nemeton too - the weather may not always be kind enough to allow the visiting of the physical nemeton.

In order to find your physical nemeton, should you be blessed to live near to woodland or forests, then follow your heart. Explore your local wood/forest until you find a quiet area surrounded by trees (preferably including an oak) that speaks to you and at which you feel divine peace visiting. Open your soul to the voices of those who inhabit there. Address them and introduce yourself. Seek their permission to join them and make offerings of food and drink. Make sure any such offerings are natural and not pre-processed pollutants. Water, organic juices, cider and mead are excellent for the liquid offering; the food offering can be a home made cake using as many natural ingredients as possible or some good wholemeal bread.

After you have introduced yourself, gained permission of the local spirits and trees and then made your offerings, sit a while and soak up the atmosphere. Start to feel this place as your true spirit home. It is your gateway to the Otherworld. You are a child of the forest and this nemeton is your sacred place within it.

Then ask for the blessing of the Stag God of the forest whom some call Cernunnos or Herne. Commune with him. If you are not sure how to commune with a spirit or deity I shall devote a forthcoming blog post to this very thing over the coming days.

You have now created your physical nemeton. You will become more linked with this place and the spirits who inhabit it will become as your family and best friends.

In my next article I shall advise on how to create the inner nemeton.

- Robin Green-Elk