A Druid’s Peace, Dealing with the Covid Blues

So, this pandemic seems to go on and on, doesn’t it? I thought it would only be a couple of months at first but now it seems to be headed for a year or maybe more. Ugh! And cold weather that will make seeing friends even harder to do, plus forcing risk taking by going inside, is looming in the near future. So I thought an article about dealing with the blues might be appropriate, a druid perspective.

The first thing I want to emphasize is not to let fears and sadness take over your thoughts and emotions. Fear has no power of its own. But the thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and actions of humans are all highly creative and influence what happens in the future in a very real way. So fear forces just love to come in and try to take over, hounding us to think dark thoughts, surrounding us with sadness or restlessness that makes us feel a bit crazy. All along my own path, my inner druid guides have kept repeating to just take a moment to listen to these fear messages, make simple notes about them, and then DON’T think or feel them again until I go into a healing meditation to transmute them into light. That’s the only time I sit with my fears and worries—not that I’m 100% successful at this, but I try. But shifting my focus away from them has been the biggest help I can think of to help reduce their impact, and practice has made me a whole lot better at it than I was when I started. Standing up to fear and not allowing it to control you is a basic lesson on any druid path, any spiritual path, in fact. I’ve come to understand that all pain in my life is really a message from God/Goddess that I have some fear inside I haven’t been aware of, that the negative event is a shaman’s blow that opens the fear energy for the sole purpose of making it conscious, so I can heal it. It’s the same for everyone. Covid and all the isolation and financial stress that came with it is no different. I’ve had past life memory after memory over these last months of descending from a heavenly place. Dark forces invaded that heaven, and a dark goddess created diseases and storms and massive deaths to wipe out the forces of light, so she could take charge of the universe. And she did take over and has held humanity in her grip for eons. And this pandemic mess is helping us remember, wake up, and heal those old, cosmic shadows and move beyond them into a far brighter future.

So, the second thing to remember when the Covid blues hit is that this whole scenario is full of ancient illusions that can be healed in light. I bring my own shadows into the diamond light in the center of the four lobes of my heart. Everyone has this spark of God/Goddess. That light is the most refined and powerful in the universe, a drop of God and Goddess in union. It has an intense creative energy, and any shadow moved into it will simply transmute or melt back into light in seconds. You don’t have to see it for this to work. Just imagine a small dark cloud of your worries moving into the center of your heart and release your belief in those. And the fear will return to peace. Try it the next time you feel like this pandemic is going to last forever, like you are worthless or powerless, or like the financial belt tightening in your life will do you in. Some fears are intense and can take repeated healings to shift completely but I’ve never had any fear last very long when I began doing healings on it, and I’ve been doing this 24 years. Healing it on the inside means the outer reflections of that fear go away. I could give a hundred examples of amazing breakthroughs after healings in my own and my client’s lives. There is always a way to freedom, to finding funds when needed, to dealing with family members driving you up the wall. And it is love that always heals fear, too, so thinking about something or doing you love will also go a long way to banish fear’s hold on you.

 

Not seeing other people very often can be really hard, especially on those extroverts out there. So, I think it’s a great idea to substitute nature for human friends, at least some of the time. Befriend a tree, for instance, go visit it and talk to it. Trees have the most peaceful natures! And they have hearts you can feel beating underneath their bark. They whisper quiet wisdom when I ask them to help me. I’ve learned a whole lot of wisdom from trees that most humans seem to have no idea of. And there’s always a feeling of gentle peace when I sit under trees. I do this on a regular basis and it eases my isolation greatly. This could apply to a pet, too, or a river. All of nature holds the Goddess’s love for everyone, full of comfort and solace, especially in troubles.

I can get a bit restless in the winter time, too, cabin fever, stuck in a small house for months on end. So, I also think it’s important to get out of the house, somehow, some way, every single day. I enjoy walking, and my dog and I walk a mile each morning and evening in beautiful spaces. It’s a breather from that closed in feeling, and my challenges just melt away in the gorgeousness of the woods or lakes nearby. Only lightning or icy paths keep me indoors, very infrequently. Or pick a power spot in nature and go visit that every day. Driving to a wooded or scenic view would do as well. Even sitting outside for a time will break up that closed in feeling.

I think having some kind of project to work on also diminishes the feeling of being trapped and powerless that isolation and pandemic restrictions can bring on. So, think up something constructive or creative to do, a little bit every day. It makes me feel like I’m still worthwhile and accomplishing something useful, even if it’s as simple as baking bread, thinking up new veggie casserole for dinner, making up new harp songs, or knitting an extra warm hat. I’m already planning the books I want to complete over the coming winter months, so I have no doldrum times to worry about. It’s surprising how much fun one can have stuck indoors. There are a multitude of classes online, too. Try something totally fun and new. Even making some creative plan for the warmer months next summer can be a lot of fun in winter, like planning a new garden or patio or project at work. Spend an hour or two every day on this. It will fill up your life. Fear forces also want to deaden our minds, so they can have free reign on earth while we are not paying any attention. Sitting around watching mindless TV shows or feeling sorry for oneself is giving in to fear in a very real way. Stand up to those shadows! DO something positive. If it’s one thing my druid guides have discouraged every step of the way, it’s not paying attention when fears show up in my life. I’ve learned to focus on them, read their intentions very clearly, and make clear and conscious choices about what I want in life, not giving them an inch. This is called waking up, another very necessary lesson on any spirit path.

Journeying is another great way to get out of oneself and one’s cramped lifestyle. Still your mind, always ask for protection when you enter the spirit world, ask some overlighting mentor in the otherworld to lead you, and move through a natural portal to the other side. I imagine a waterfall and just move right through it into a place full of light, often a wildflower meadow or sometimes stone circles far away, even other star systems. I’ve met a multitude of beings this way that have taught me about the inner planes of light, the stages of child development in light, making and using flower essences, and on and on. One does need to be a bit careful about journeying, so try this one slowly, because there are beings on the Otherside that aren’t beneficial and can be pushy and controlling. Make sure your overlighting mentor is from a high level, a spirit being you trust. Any druid working with the spirit world, though, needs to learn how to journey to teachers across the cosmos, find druid teachers to access ancient truths, and grow into our divine selves. It’s best not to spend hours and hours journeying, though. It can make you spacey and lose touch with your life somewhat. Keep it to twenty minutes or so. If you can’t think of solutions for yourself, the spirit world is overflowing with ideas to move you forward or projects to keep you busy. I can get exhausted doing all the things the spirit world holds out as creative possibilities. There is never any lack of positive, constructive solutions or creative ideas on the Otherside.

And perhaps most importantly, do something fun, every single day. I sew, bake, garden, play my harp, go rowing. And since Covid began, I’ve taken to watching one hour of a movie every afternoon. This is unheard of for a lifelong workaholic like myself and has brought a time of peaceful relaxation into my days that I really enjoy and will probably continue even after Covid is over. And it’s the perfect escape in troubled times. I’m very careful about what I choose to watch, though, because I don’t want to focus on or support fear by paying for fear-filled movies, either. I think TV is full of mind deadening and fear-arousing shows as well. Sometimes I put on bagpipe music and do jigs and reels, instead. Whatever you yourself really like, do that, do it every day. Learn to play the ukulele or bake French pastries, something that you’ve never done before so your interest is high. Make a list long enough to last you all winter, now, so you have the CD’s or DVD’s or baking materials you will need to last 5 whole months. It has to be really FUN though. The point here is not being constructive or useful but pleasure and joy.

The other thing I’ve done since Covid started is make a list of folks I really like, who bring me up for the most part, and I call one every few days. I’ve made some new friends this way, people I treasure and didn’t know were out there. I really value hearing someone’s voice. It’s more intimate than Facebook or texts, I think, and it’s surprising how close you can feel this way. It’s a guaranteed way to overcome the isolation blues.

And the last thing to remember is never give up. Even with all the practice not focusing on fear thoughts, we can still have some really down days. I notice for myself and my clients that intense fears last about three days, and then there is usually some shift to a better space. Sometimes the best you can do is curl up in a warm sofa with a cup of cocoa and a good book and just endure for a while. Fear forces just love to get us to give up, to hurt ourselves even, to think terrible thoughts about the future. It gives them all the power they don’t have themselves. When nothing else works, go into your deep heart, your inner child maybe, your inner god or goddess, and find that happy forever place that cannot be wounded and always endures and comes out into the sun in due time. Then just sit in there protected from the storm clouds till brightness comes. My guides always say, “It’s always darkest before dawn,” so I keep the hope of an imminent breakthrough close to my heart during the worst times, too. And more often than not, it’s true. I hope it is for you, too.

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About the Author:

Jill Frew Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist and energy/light healer, who has followed a druid path of enlightenment for over 30 years. She is founder of The Celtic Heaven School, a nine-month program that teaches druidry, ascension, and healing. And she is author of the Alba Reborn Trilogy (the life story of a druid priestess and priest in BCE Scotland and their teachings of enlightenment), A Guidebook to Druidry, and Light Healing for Children. CelticHeaven.com