The Wisdom of the Wyrd

Book excerpt: Today, many of us hunger for guidance on how best to live our lives. In this fascinating and scholarly book, psychologist Dr Brian Bates offers a journey into a way of wisdom which once was ours a thousand years ago when our ancestors lived as indigenous peoples in ancient Europe. To them the archaic word 'Wyrd' meant all that was sacred and unexplainable - the force which underlay all life. This force was at the heart of their spiritual tradition which, in its scope and depth, had remarkable parallels to the Eastern Tao and the Native Americans' Great Spirit. Drawing on twenty years of research, Brain Bates gives a rich description of the creative, organic vision of the world which our ancestors held - at the centre of which were the shamans, powerful figures who mediated directly with the spirits and the pulse of the earth's rhythm. He also shows how, through practical techniques and mediations, as well as through extraordinarily fertile stories from our past, we can once again rediscover and reclaim our sacred heritage - a wisdom which is still deep within us all, and needs only to be brought to the surface.