Page 10 - An Awakening Journey Sampler

As he backed away from the picture, his voice returned to normal. It

seemed to me that I was being given a glimpse of what happens when

someone enters "the mists of Avalon" and passes through the "veil" which

separates this world from the Otherworld. The Celtic Otherworld is the

real studio Courtney enters whenever he prepares to paint one of his

marvellous pictures. Its inhabitants are his teachers and guides, as he puts

brush to the page. The next morning, after celebrating the Eucharistic
liturgy, several parishioners came to the rectory for coffee and sweets.

Courtney invited them into the dining room, where he opened the velvet

satchel in which he keeps the pages of the Book of Patrick. He began to

display the pages across the surface of the table, one next to the other,

until the whole surface was covered. The exposing of each page was ac-

companied by audible exclamations of wonder from some and deepening

silence from others. In the end there was complete silence. People just
kept gazing, soaking up the beauty, as they could not take in enough.

In the Celtic belief system, there are times in the year when the veil sepa-

rating this world from the other is considered thinner than at other times.

It is believed that, at these times, it is easier for humans to slip from one
side to the other. The quarterly lunar festivals are such times. And it is

thought that the thinnest space of all comes at Samhain, Celtic New Year,

which takes place on the night between Halloween and All Saints Day.

Perhaps Courtney Davis can pass through the "veil" so effortlessly because

he is himself a Celt, born to parents of Welsh, Scottish, and Irish descent

on October 3 1st. While his birthplace was Blackwood, South Wales, he

grew up in London. Alas, throughout his life, he has suffered from back

problems and is registered as disabled. After three years of employment as

a designer for one of England's largest jewellery manufacturers, he was in
such pain that he had to have major spinal surgery in order to keep

going. It was during the painful period right after his first surgery that he

had the first of a series of mystical experiences, which completely changed

his life. It began with the sensation that his departed grandmother was

Page 10