The Spear of Lugh Eisteddfod
A Year With the Spear
by Paul Newman, Spear of Lugh Eisteddfod Winner 2005
My year with Lugh’s spear was awesome! The Lammas Games was one of the first Pagan events I’d been to - I went from curious outsider to member of the Druidic community in about two hours!
One of Lugh’s names is Lamfada or ‘many skilled’. I don’t claim to be skilled at many things, but carrying his spear for a year certainly gave me a taste of many different disciplines for the first time ever. Among other things, I...
- met a Druidic blacksmith and spent most of that year as his apprentice;
- helped with an engraving workshop at one of the Rainbow 2000 camps;
- met a wonderful group of friends I’m sure I’ve met before somewhere...;
- found modern Druidry;
- heard a bard tell stories round a campfire for the first time in my life;
- carved a jack-o-lantern out of wood;
- participated in Charnwood Groves rituals;
- spent a night in Brigas womb, Derbyshire, with my Hound, Jez;
- learned about druidic diplomacy at mistletide;
- made a copper penannular brooch for a friend;
- Awen’d the Sun up at Stonehenge on Summer Solstice;
- performed at the first and most amazing handfasting I’ve been to;
- met modern day bards and was totally inspired by them (big up for Jim Faupel, Damh Smith and Paul Mitchell).
But the best thing that happened was...
At the Eisteddfod, I asked people to write to the Derbyshire County Council during a poem regarding the quarrying dispute near the Nine Ladies Stone Circle.
Check this link out for the fantastic news we had towards the end of my year!
Paul's website, which includes full-length songs, can be found at www.iampaulnewman.co.uk.