Parting the Mists

Interesting card to come up today as, here in the United States, it is Veteran’s Day – when we honor all those who have served in our military branches. However, we must remember that being a warrior and leader is not just for those who wear a uniform; it is for all of us to answer the call to stand for something greater than ourselves and yet that represents ourselves. A short meditation with this card’s image might be fruitful today.

Blessings,

Thistle

Boar – The Warrior Spirit, Leadership, Direction

The card shows a boar in the forest. In the foreground lies a bronze carnyx, with its mouth in the form of a boar’s head. Such a battle trumpet has been found in Grampian, Scotland. By the path, and also from Scotland, is the Boar stone, beside which all Pictish kings took their oaths. To one side we also see the discarded bronze helmet of a warrior, complete with a board crest found in Wales. In the foreground grows mugwort, dandelion, and wild asparagus.

Meaning: Boar (Torc) can open you to the Warrior Spirit, helping you to find your direction in life. It’s a wild and powerful animal, he calls you into the forest to discover a secret about yourself and about the world. The ritual boar paths that exist in Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, and Scotland exist in the inner world too, and if you follow them you will come face to face with an animal embodying the wild and untamed power that lives within each one of us. Stare closely at him and you will discover he is a representative of the goddess – his skin can heal you, he can inspire you to write music and poetry, and his primal power can make you a leader or chief. See if you can use your wildness and your energy for genuine acts of heroism in a world that longs for insight and healing.

This card may also mean that you have lost your sense of direction. There is a close connection in tradition between madness and pigs and boars. At a playful level this folly is expressed by the Morris dancer who beats the audience with the pigs bladder – also used a football. But at a more serious level, those who were mad were often made to act as swineherds. Merlin, in his period of madness, talks to pigs, and within this image is conveyed the concept that madness and insight are closely allied. Sometimes we have to go through A breakdown so that something wider and deeper can enter into our lives. The boar is the emissary of the terrible mother – who is also the initiator. Sometimes a period of destruction proceeds Creation or rebirth.

Druid Animal Oracle by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, art by Will Worthington